Coming on Easy
by risbeencoldplaywhore
Summary: Three best friends head to the North Carolina coast to enjoy their final summer together. They get more than they bargained for from some unexpected visitors.
1. Summertime

**We see you have found us again, this time in a joint account. Snazzy huh? Any additional stories, because after COE coldplaywhore will probably strong arm Risbee into writing another one, will be posted under this account.**

**Just so you know, this story will post only during the summer, the posting date matching the date in the story. Expect at least one chapter a week, but sometimes we could surprise you with two or maybe a random POV outtake. **

**Risbee and coldplaywhore don't own Twilight. We do have some great support from MaggieMay14 and smmiskimen to get this story out to you.**

**Enjoy!**

**Chapter Song: Summertime by DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince**

**BPOV**

Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah, hallelujah, hal-le-lu-jah.

Yes, I know Handel's Messiah was generally sung around Christmas, but it was June, the sun was shining, and I was at the beginning of a two-month long stint at the beach with my two best friends, Kate and Charlotte.

Oh, and we were finally out of the car.

Hallelujah, indeed.

Well, we had technically been out of the car once already, but that was just to take our luggage and everything inside the house in order to make room in the car for the groceries. We were determined to get all our busy work done so that once we finally got back to the great big and obscenely beautiful house that was all ours for the summer, we wouldn't have to leave.

All that was standing in our way was a grocery cart, some aisles and the major decision of 'paper or plastic'.

We brought our own bags because we were all about conservation and everybody knew that plastic bags were evil incarnate. The three of us marched through the automatic doors of the Food Lion and eyeballed our mission. We were fierce, we were focused and, if I was being completely honest, we probably looked like the poster children for one of those blond light bulb jokes, but Kate and I weren't blonde. Charlotte was though. I could almost hear the internal snickers and testosterone filled appraisals of the baggers at the end of the check out aisles as they stared at us.

I may have used a particular finger to scratch a teeny tiny itch on my chin.

Yeah, it didn't take long before they stopped glaring.

"Bella, stop staring at the boys and pay attention. They're too young for you anyway."

"I wasn't…"

"You were and you know it. Look, I'm all about a good summertime hook up, but you can totally do better than boys that are wearing Band Camp t-shirts and work as baggers at the Food Lion. And Bella, they should at least be over five foot three."

Oh, god. She was right. One of them elbowed his friend and then winked at me with a little grin on his face. Ew.

Still, I wasn't looking at them for _that, _and she knew it. Picking up a date in the grocery store was so 1980's. I stuck my tongue out at Kate, ignoring the gasps from the peanut gallery, and took one of the pieces of paper she was holding out in my direction.

"Okay, so I divided the list into thirds to make things easier… and quicker. Let's go get the groceries and meet back here when we're done in, say, fifteen minutes? It shouldn't take longer than that, right?" Kate looked at me, then over to Charlotte and sighed. She took the list from Charlotte's hands, turned it right side up and then looked back at me. "Maybe we should say 'let's finish _our_ lists and then go find her and help her with hers'."

"Do you think it's safe to let her wander around this place alone?" I wrapped my arms around the shoulders of my two best friends and squeezed them. I couldn't help the smile that was on my face and I winked at Kate as I tried to suppress the giggle that was fighting to escape.

Charlotte, on the other hand, was not as amused. "Shut it. I was just wondering if the tree had any idea what it was destined for when it was growing. I mean, did it know that it was going to end up paper, or a grocery list? Did the parent trees have conversations with the baby trees about goals? What if he wanted to be a corporate document or a diploma or something else? A grocery list just seems so… insignificant." Charlotte folded up the piece of paper and put it back in her pocket. Twenty bucks says she buries it somewhere in the backyard when we get back to the beach house.

Bless her heart.

"I mean, do boy trees grow up to build houses and girl trees get to be the grocery lists and notebooks? Because that's gender bias and discrimination, you know."

"You know what, Charlotte? Instead of being sad that it's _just_ a grocery list, think of it as the tree's way of helping us become independent, functioning members of society. The items written on this list will help to keep us healthy and alive and all sorts of wonderful, magical things. Better yet, I think our little tree friend is just thankful that it didn't end up toilet paper 'cause that would have been way worse, right?"

Jesus, did she have tears in her eyes?

I looked at Kate and stage-whispered, "I think Charlotte and I will do our parts together. You come find us when you're done." I took a look at the three lists and scratched off a few things from mine and added them to Kate's to try and even things out and make things easier for Charlotte. "It's probably best if you get the paper towels."

"I hate you two," Charlotte folded her arms across her body and pouted, but I knew she wasn't being serious. She just had a different way of looking at the world, and in this day and age of cynicism and just all out rudeness, I wouldn't want her any different.

The funny thing was that she was academically brilliant. She was on track to graduate Phi Beta Kappa, had been inducted into every academic honor society imaginable and had plans to get her PhD in Clinical Psychology after completing her undergrad degree. Outside of the academic realm however, she was definitely a free spirit, though the only thing Kate & had difficultly with was her veganism. It was hard to eat a burger around the girl.

"You love us and you know it. Now, go get the groceries so we can get out of here and be lounging on the deck with some margaritas as soon as possible. If we hurry, we can still get some good beach time after we get the car unpacked. Daddy said that he let the cleaning service people know we were coming and that he'd make sure they get all the beds made up and whatever else they do." Kate shrugged indifferently and I rolled my eyes as she continued, "All we have to do is get the food and the drinks and show up."

Apparently deciding that was the last word on the subject, Kate took off with her cart towards the produce section. As I watched her walk away, I realized just how different the three of us were and yet how well we fit together. Kate really wasn't a snob, she absolutely knew how fortunate she was and most of the time she underplayed her privileged lifestyle, because people tended to take advantage of the situation.

Case in point, her father's fourth wife, Tanya, who Kate loathed and pretended didn't exist, but that was a different issue in and of itself. Kate was completely loyal, devoted and her biggest fear in life was to be misunderstood because of the size of her father's bank account.

He was a major defense attorney out of Raleigh and had built quite the practice in the past two decades. In fact, seeing her father's success in law was probably why she was going into Law School next fall. Though Kate was sometimes guarded to a fault and it made her seem a bit snooty, once you got past Kate's exterior, inside she was just a girl who loved her family and her life and tried to make every day as fun as humanly possible. Sometimes even more so.

"Tangerines or Cantaloupe?" I looked at Charlotte in confusion until I realized she was watching Kate saunter towards the produce section. Then I got it. There were two decent looking guys in that section and Charlotte was wondering aloud what would happen next. Would Kate go for the blonde or the guy with the hint of a tattoo peeking out from the bottom of his sleeve? Kate totally knew what we were doing too because she turned around and winked at us before going and standing by the strawberries…directly in the middle of the two.

"Both," I answered as I watched the guys slowly gravitate until they were both helping her sort through the plastic bins of fruit. The girl had skills; there was no doubt about that.

As Charlotte and I started walking down the bread aisle towards the bagels, I took a few seconds to think about how much my plans had deviated over the past two weeks and how lucky I was to have these two girls as my best friends.

In fact, saying I was lucky was the total understatement of the century.

Two weeks ago I was packing to go back to my hometown of Forks, Washington, for the summer. I was facing a summer filled with paperwork at the police station or, if I was really lucky, stocking inflatable rubber rafts and dodging the completely unwanted advances of Mike Newton. I'd spent four years of high school and three summers between college semesters dodging the 'heir-apparent' to Newton's Sporting Goods.

Gross.

But not this summer. Nope. Never again.

After finishing my last exam of the semester and somehow scoring an empty table at He's Not Here, the best bar ever in Chapel Hill, and over several rounds of Blue Cups, Kate, Charlotte and I came up with the epic idea of spending the summer at Kate's family beach house in Emerald Isle. The plan was flawless because it would a) protect the environment since I wouldn't be driving across the country and b) it would save us all money because there was no rent or summer school tuition. Most importantly, it would keep us all together. That part was our ultimate goal considering this was our last summer before real life interfered, and who knew where we would all end up.

All we had to do before our summer of slothdom could officially begin was get the groceries purchased, home and unloaded. I flew through the store like a girl at one of those wedding dress basement bargain sales that you see on TV, but without the hair pulling and scratching. Charlotte carefully drove the cart and I ran ahead on each aisle grabbing as much as I could in my arms and running back to her. I wanted the sun on my skin and the sand between my toes as soon as humanly possible.

We met Kate exactly seventeen minutes later and, since it was a Wednesday, there wasn't a huge crowd of other customers. Most rentals were Saturday to Saturday, so grocery shopping on a weekday instead of the weekend was key; otherwise we would be stuck here for hours.

Kate had spent the better part of the past couple of weeks teaching us the finer points of beach life. In other words, how not to look like a tourist once we got into town. She started pointing at people and we had to guess whether or not they were locals. Fanny packs were a dead giveaway, as was any person carrying a bag from Wings or anybody with Budweiser on their beach towel.

Just no.

More than once, I'd caught myself eyeballing people in the grocery store and in the parking lot and I felt like I had a pretty good idea of who was who around here. Yes, I realized it was somewhat ironic considering that technically I was an import myself, but Kate said that since we were going to be here all summer, it was completely different. Eh, whatever. At the very least it did help pass the time as our groceries were bagged and loaded back in to our cart.

The poor baggers looked so crushed as we walked out, ignoring their existence. I'd say sorry, but I really wasn't because all I could focus on was the fact that we were finally on our way back to the house. All responsibilities were done and, once we got back, I wasn't planning on leaving again for at least a few days. I had big plans that included nothing but decompressing from the semester's finals.

"As soon as we get the cars unloaded, we have to move them out of the driveway. Dad made arrangements for the driveway to get resurfaced this week before he knew we were coming. It will suck for a few days, but we should be able to get the cars back by Wednesday or Thursday. Our neighbors said we could park in their garage since they're not arriving until next weekend."

"Why don't we just get everything loaded into the elevator," c_ause, yeah, the house had one, _"and I'll ride up with the groceries and start unpacking while you two move your cars…though it looks like your neighbors are already here." I pointed to the driveway where there were already cars parked. Kate tilted her head a bit and murmured something under her breath, but shook it off.

"All I know is that they assured Daddy that they wouldn't be here until the 4th. Those probably belong to somebody looking for beach access. I'm still moving my car over there and they can figure out how to get around me. Since they're the ones that aren't supposed to be there, it's not my problem."

I pulled a beer out of the bag and put it on the steps because Kate obviously needed one already. "I'm just going to leave this here and when you get back from moving the car, why don't you drink it. Fast."

Kate glared at me and I beamed back at her and we both realized that Charlotte had disappeared. "There aren't any trees to speak of around here and we've only been home a few minutes, where did she go?"

I peeked in the cars, but nothing. She wasn't in the front yard or on the deck or anywhere we could find her. All the grocery bags were still sitting by the elevator and the golf cart was still plugged in to its charger. It was like she had literally disappeared into thin air.

"Eh," Kate picked up a bag and handed it to me. "She'll turn up, she always does."

Charlotte still hadn't made an appearance by the time we were all settled, so I walked through the house and up to the third floor, towards the bedrooms, to see if she had fallen asleep. It was pretty hot and humid, so perhaps she needed to rest for a bit.

However, when I heard the shower running in the bathroom next to the room I had claimed, I was both a little bit irritated that she hadn't helped and a bit relieved that she wasn't floating across the ocean in a Sea Kayak and unable to get back to shore.

I may have made a mental note to make sure the storage shed stayed locked while we were here.

I decided to poke my head inside the bathroom door and let Charlotte know what was going on. "Hey Charlotte, when you're finished, come upstairs and find us. I think we need to have a toast to start the summer off right."

She didn't answer, so I stepped inside and spoke a little louder. "Charlotte? Are you okay?"

**EPOV**

What in the hell was going on? Who was Charlotte and why was there a girl in the bathroom. I pulled the curtain to the side and poked my head out to see who was talking to me. Well not me, but Charlotte.

Scratch that. There was a really fucking beautiful girl in the bathroom. There was just one problem, she looked completely mortified as I stuck my head out of the shower curtain and I looked at her rather curiously. "I'm not quite sure who this Charlotte girl is," I admitted coolly as I winked at her and she slapped her hand over her mouth in shock.

"Oh my god...I am so...so sorry," she rambled as she moved her hand from her mouth to cover her eyes. She looked absolutely adorable with her cheeks flushed pink in embarrassment and her hand shaking in nervousness. "I thought you were...well obviously I thought you were someone else.

"Yes...you thought I was Charlotte."

"Uh yeah... because I didn't know there were any guys in this house. Maybe I'm in the wrong house. Something is all fucked up here."

She began walking away towards the door, her hand still over her eyes even though her back was to me, and I had to admit, I stared at her ass. She was dressed casually in a loose fitting t-shirt and jean shorts, but fuck if it wasn't the nicest ass I could remember ever seeing. And that was saying something since it was covered in denim.

"Uh...are you going to tell me your name?" I asked flirtatiously, as I held onto the shower curtain, making sure my lower half was completely covered. It was irrational and completely unlike me, but I wanted to know as much as I could about her before she walked out of the door. If I even tried to get out of the shower, my junk would be front and center, and surely she would run for the hills, right?

Unfortunately, I quickly found out what she would do if that situation happened, because the water went ice cold and I jumped up in shock. "Jesus Fucking Christ," I cursed loudly as I slipped slightly on the cool water on the bottom of the tub. My grip on the shower curtain wasn't tight enough and before I knew it, I was tumbling from the shower and landing on the bathmat outside of the tub with a splat.

The beautiful girl turned back in horror, as though she wanted to help me, and my hand instinctively went to cover my dick. After all, I didn't want her to see the shrinkage caused by the cold water. Hell, a minute earlier and she would have known just _how_ attractive I found her, but now here I was, in a heap on the floor with my hand over my cock wishing the floor would swallow me whole. There was no way this situation could get worse.

Apparently, there was.

"What the fuck is going on in here?" shouted a dark haired girl who threw open the door and ran in just as Bella reached for a towel to toss to me. Fucking great, now there are two girls in the bathroom seeing me at my worst. "Why the hell is there a guy in our shower? What the fuck, did you break in here? I am so going to call the cops. This is bloody ridiculous," she screeched in such a high pitched voice I was certain only dogs could hear her.

"No...no, no, I didn't break in," I shouted as I put the towel around me as best as I could and stood up shakily. Fuck, my back hurt. "I'm here with my friend, Garrett. His sister is married to the guy that owns this beach house and she said we could use it for the summer since they are on some extended honeymoon or some shit like that."

The taller brunette started shouting obscenities at the top of her lungs and I seriously thought her head would start turning around and bile would shoot out, just like in _The Exorcist_. It wasn't pretty. Her friend, however, was still standing in the bathroom, looking at me without shame. Her eyes flitted up to mine after a moment and she let out a small sigh.

"Ignore Kate, ever since her dad married Tanya, who he met during Parents Weekend at UNC when Kate was a freshman, she's been a bit...insane where she is concerned. Tanya was a senior at the time," she said simply as my eyes grew wide in surprise. Wow, that was kinda gross, and it meant there was only like 3 or 4 years between Kate and her new stepmother. However, Kate was the last person I wanted to know more about.

"So, if her name is Kate...your name would be?"

"I'm Bella. Well, Isabella, but no one calls me that but teachers on the first day of class and my parents when they get my credit card statement."

_Bella... _How perfect.

I began to extend my hand out to shake it, forgetting that it was holding my towel in place, and suddenly I was flashing her my dick again. Jesus Christ. Could I be anymore spastic? As I struggled to right the towel and cover myself up, I noticed that Bella may have spent a little too long staring at my junk. Hmm...very interesting.

"I'm Edward, and I'm really sorry I keep ending up naked in your presence. I'm not some sort of pervert," I admitted as Bella blushed and gave me a quick smile.

"No worries," she said casually as Kate, the angry glamazon came back to the doorway, looking at both of us with disdain. She had been gone for only a minute or two, storming through the house and screaming for Garrett, but based on the look on her face, I would guess that she had found him and things weren't exactly going as she wanted them to.

"If you are done flirting with each other, we are having a meeting right the fuck now. Get dressed and then start packing cause you are getting the fuck out of _my _beach house." Kate grabbed Bella by the wrist and pulled her away as she waved quickly to me before she was gone.

I sprinted to my room, trying not to run into anyone else and got dressed, but as I went through my clothes, I found myself wanting to look nice for Bella. What the hell was wrong with me? I may not even be staying here in twenty minutes if the crazy chick got her way. When I was finally dressed, I made my way downstairs into the living room, where Queen Kate was holding court with everyone.

Peter, my best friend, was sitting on the couch looking utterly confused as he stared at the blonde opposite of him who Bella was now perched beside. They were leaning into each other and giggling about something and I immediately became self conscious. They wouldn't be talking about me, would they?

"Kate," Garrett snapped as I sat down beside Peter and watched as Garrett circled around the room nervously. Our trip to the beach for the summer had been a last minute thing, none of us having any success in finding any decent jobs for the summer, so when Garrett mentioned the beach house in passing, we jumped at the chance. He literally called his sister, who agreed to let us use the house, and a week later, we were there. "This is all kind of pointless. Tanya gave us permission to be here over the summer and we're not going anywhere."

Kate was already on the phone at this point, no doubt calling her father, and she gave Garrett the finger as she paced around the room, yelling into her cell.

"You look just like someone I went to high school with," Charlotte said casually as she looked at Garrett and he gave her a curious look in return.

"Oh yeah? What high school? Maybe it was me."

"Not likely, he's in a coma."

"Huh. Who brought the good news bear? Somebody give her some fucking honey," Garrett shouted rudely as Kate started screeching and we all looked at her with uncertainty. This call could either make or break our summer.

"No Daddy...it's not fair. You promised we could have the beach house this summer... I don't care how many rooms... Tanya shouldn't have...fine...fine...yeah, I get it." The call went on for what seemed like forever with Kate huffing and getting angry and frustrated, and all of us simply sitting around, waiting for a verdict of some sort. When she finished, she threw down her phone in fury and stared at Garrett like she was about to cross the room and rip his head off.

"So...what's the deal?" Bella questioned softly as I stared at her carefully, my eyes watching her legs more than anything. They looked so soft and smooth, I literally wanted to crawl in front of her and kiss them. In a different situation, perhaps it would seem less creepy, but today, I'd get kicked in the head, I knew it.

"The deal is that my father refuses to let me kick these idiots out of the house," Kate said with exasperation as Garrett looked down at me smugly from his spot behind the couch. He was leaning against it with Peter and I perched in front of him on the sofa, showing a united front of sorts. "He is insisting that with six bedrooms in this place, we'll never even know that they are here, but I beg to differ."

"Oh come on, it's not like you're living with complete fucking idiots. We are about to be seniors at Wake Forest," Peter announced forcefully, reiterating the fact that he only speaks when necessary, unlike his little sister Alice who you can never get to shut the fuck up. She came for a tour of Wake last year and roomed with us for a weekend; it was a complete disaster.

"Think positive Kate, at least they aren't from Duke," Charlotte chimed in, smiling at Peter sweetly before she turned to face the wrath of her friend.

"Oh great, small victory," Kate replied as she threw her hands up in exasperation. "I hate this idea and I want it noted that you guys are completely ruining our summer vacation. There are three bedrooms on the west side, you guys get those ones."

"But they are the smaller ones," cursed Garrett. "How the fuck am I supposed to romance the ladies in a twin bed?"

"Considering you are wearing a t-shirt that reads 'Freelance Gynecologist' I don't think it will be much of an issue," Kate laughed as the rest of the girls joined in, and I may have cracked a small smile at hearing Bella's sweet laughter. "Listen, I am not here to make your life easier. If you want to stay here, then you guys get the rooms on the west side. This is not up for negotiations. Also, you clean up after yourselves, do your own groceries, laundry and don't eat any of our stuff."

"Oh something tells me no one has eaten _your stuff_ for a while, which is why you are such a stuck up bitch," Garrett remarked snidely as Kate moved forward, ready to pounce and claw his eyes out, while Charlotte jumped up to stop her. "Did I strike a nerve?"

"This isn't going to work if you guys can't at least be civil," Bella remarked as she turned to look at me with a small grin. "I, for one, am not ready to leave yet. The boys will sleep on the west side of the house and we will sleep on the east. We each have to agree to try and respect each other; otherwise this won't be a good summer for any of us."

"I doubt you will even notice we're here," Garrett said with a smirk as he eyed up Kate, who was still pissed off. If anyone was going to be an issue this summer, it would be Garrett & Kate, who were already viewing the other as their mortal enemy.

"Listen, I think we are all mature enough to handle a summer here together. It's only like eight weeks, right?" I stated firmly as Bella nodded her head in agreement. "We agree to sleep in the rooms on the west side, and Garrett, you can take the one with the bigger bed, so stop complaining."

"Thanks man."

"We promise to try and maintain our distance and be as civil and polite as possible, deal?" I asked as I offered out my hand as Peter and Garrett followed suit. "Come on; let's shake on it so we are all in agreement."

Bella rose from the couch and slipped her hand easily into mine, a small shock coursing through my system as I tightened my grip around hers. We shook quickly, but our hands didn't separate as fast as our friends did, and I couldn't help but notice that when we did pull apart, she was blushing again.

This could turn out to be a very good summer after all.


	2. Firework

**Welcome Back! Glad to see we didn't scare you away with our madness. This is update one of two for today. Consider it out July 4th gift to our US readers.  
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**Risbee and coldplaywhore don't own Twilight. We do have some great support from MaggieMay14 and smmiskimen to get this story out to you.**

**Enjoy!**

**Song: Firework by Katy Perry**

**BPOV**

Ahhh, bliss.

I inhaled sharply, taking in the salty warm air and looked out at the ocean. The water was so calm that there were no waves; it simply lapped at the light colored sand, and already a few groups of people had started to gather on the beach, setting up their spots for the day.

Since it was the Fourth of July, those spots would be hard to find in a couple of hours and part of me thought about taking some chairs down to the beach and claiming our territory. The 'content, lazy, I just got out of bed' side of me won out and I hoped that somebody else would have the good sense to do it. Though if the beach got too crowded, we _could_ stay by the pool all day, because yes, the beach house had a pool, and staying there instead of on the sandy beach wouldn't exactly be a hardship.

Like I said, bliss.

I scooted the rocking chair closer to the railing surrounding the deck and propped my feet up, letting the early morning sun warm my skin. Wrapped in the blanket from my bed, with a cup coffee on the small table and a book in my lap, I could think of only a few ways I'd rather be spending my morning.

But since _that_ obviously wasn't an option this morning, I focused on the peace and quiet that had been so elusive around here. The past few days had been interesting to say the very least with the constant bickering between Kate and Garrett.

They fought. All. The. Time.

He did whatever he could to get under her skin and she yelled at him about it. For what it was worth, all of the boys seemed pretty cool, not that I'd had much of a chance to get to know any of them since the six of us had barely spent any time in the same room. Kate made it perfectly clear that they were public enemies number one, two and three, and in order to keep her happy and our lives a little less ragey, Charlotte and I had humored her as much as possible.

We spent our time on the beach as far away as possible from where the boys were. We ate at different times, drank different drinks, pretty much did the opposite of whatever they were doing, whenever they were doing it. If Garrett and the boys were outside, we were holed up inside, even on the nicest days.

It was exhausting to be caught in the middle of their infighting and, as I watched a figure running on the beach, a figure with coppery hair and a very familiar build that happened to be heading in the direction of the beach house, I realized that maybe I didn't want to be a house divided any longer. I mean if I was going to spend my summer avoiding boys, I might as well go home to Forks and avoid Mike Newton. At least there, there was no fighting and I got paid for my efforts.

Of course, going back to Forks meant that I'd be living with my parents, which meant there was absolutely no chance of running into naked boys in the shower…and I really, really wanted to do that again. Except not accidentally, and with one sweaty from taking a run on the beach, copper headed boy in particular.

I couldn't help but giggle a little bit to myself as I remembered our encounter. He was so sexy and cute all at the same time, but not in an obnoxious 'I'm hot and I know it' way. It was endearing and hot.

Edward was beautiful, and I wasn't just talking about physically, though that was nothing to scoff at either. Needless to say, I was pissed at the vendetta Kate held against the boys. Just because she overdramatically assumed her summer was ruined, it didn't mean mine had to be. Regardless of what she wanted, I was determined that I was going to get to know Edward better, one way or another.

"You like him." Charlotte said matter of factly from somewhere beside me. I had been so focused on watching Edward approach the house that I hadn't realized that I wasn't alone.

"Like who? I was just watching the porpoises swim up and down the coast. If you watch the water long enough, you can see them and their cute, see?" I pointed towards the water, needing to distract her and animals were always a solid bet.

"Uh huh. Whatever. You know exactly who. Edward." She nodded towards him where he had stopped running and had started to stretch and cool down on the beach. His sinewy muscles practically glistened in the sun as he stretched his body.

Jesus Christ he was yummy.

"You haven't taken your eyes off of him since I stepped out here, and I've been here longer than you realize." She was sitting in her own chair with her coffee and the look on her face let me know that it didn't matter what I said, she knew what I was doing and I was completely busted. She was flighty and very random, but also very perceptive. There were very few things got by Charlotte.

Acknowledging defeat, I decided to spill. She was a good listener after all and it might make me feel better. "Well it doesn't matter how I feel, because this is as close as I'm going to get if things don't change around here. Peter seems pretty cool and Edward, well…yeah. Even Garrett doesn't seem that bad, from the few interactions that we've had. I don't get the feeling that they have any issue with us being here, its just Kate that has the problem. And honestly, I don't think its Garrett, I think its Tanya. In fact, I know its Tanya. But since Tanya isn't here and Garrett is…"

"We all suffer." Charlotte seemed to know exactly how I felt, which made me wonder a little bit if she had her own motivation to calm the madness in the house, but when I turned to her, she had gone back inside her room. Hmm…maybe I had an ally in all of this after all.

Edward started walking up the steps leading back to the house and I scooted inside to avoid being seen. While there was a plus to being seen wrapped up in a blanket, Edward catching me watch him from my balcony was not what I was going for. Besides, I needed brush my teeth in a bad way after finishing my coffee.

"Bella!" Kate came storming out of her bedroom and slammed the door shut. "Bella!"

"I'm mwn hrrrr." I poked my head around the corner of the bathroom door to show her I was brushing my teeth and, that if she needed me, she was going to have to wait.

"Bella! I swear to God, I'm going to kill him before the summer is over. Maybe this week. Hell, it's quite possible he doesn't make it through the day."

"Swoh dow. Wha happhend?"

"Okay, first, ew. You just spit on me. Go finish doing what you need to do and then I'll tell you. Second, you didn't tell me you saw Edward's junk. In fact, I need to calm down before I start throwing things. You need to spill."

Aw, shit. How did she find out about that?

The fact that I couldn't be around the boy without blushing probably didn't help hide anything, but I was pretty sure that it wasn't an obvious sign for 'hey, I know what he's got going on under those board shorts.' I felt my skin start to heat up as I realized that I DID in fact know what was under there and I wouldn't mind getting a closer look…because what I saw was definitely delicious.

Kate coughed not so subtly and raised her left eyebrow and my mind raced to figure out a way to get out of it.

"It wahhs compwet…"

"You know what; we'll talk about you and Edward's goods later. Like when you don't look like you're rabid. Besides, I'm too mad to think about it right now." She started going on and on about how Garrett left towels in the washing machine for two days and now they stink. And how Garrett left the milk sitting on the counter. And how Garrett played his music too loud and if she heard Eminem's 'Love the Way You Lie' one more time, she was going to scream.

"Actually, I think that was Charlotte. She has a thing from the guy from Lost who's in the video with that chick with the toe thumbs."

"What?" Kate asked, looking at me confused as I just shrugged my shoulders. Apparently she hadn't seen the video or knew that Megan Fox had weird looking thumbs. "Oh well, still. Garrett plays his music too loud and he's filthy. Gah, can't stand him. Finish getting ready so we can get out of here. I need to not be in the same place as him for a little bit or bad things are going to happen."

For once she was right, a day away from here would do us all some good. There was no way I was going to convince Kate to ease up as long as we were here, because I was confident that she wouldn't actually listen to reason, so I agreed enthusiastically with the idea.

"Go find Charlotte. I think she said something about wanting to find a present for her little sister. I'll finish getting ready and we can drive over to Atlantic Station or Beaufort or Swansboro and see if they have anything going on today for the Fourth. I could use a day out of the sun; I'm starting to turn a little pink."

I'd been working on my tan, hoping that a little color would help defuse the blushing situation, but as fair as I was, I had to be careful. Clifford the Big Red Dog was not the look I was going for, then again I didn't want to overdo it and end up looking like an Oompa Loompa like that tiny chick on Jersey Shore.

"Atlantic Station sounds good. I don't want to drive all the way to the others with all the holiday traffic and there is an ABC store right there." I didn't feel like reminding her that it would be closed today for the holiday so I decided to let her figure that out when we got there. Well that, and I was honestly afraid she'd hit me. She was just a little bit wound up.

The girl needed a hook up in a bad way, or some alone time with some porn and her nightstand drawer. Surely there was an adult store somewhere close by, right? Desperate times called for desperate measures after all. And if I kept having the good fortune of seeing Edward naked, I might have to do some shopping for myself as well. How much do those fancy rabbits cost these days?

Kate left the room as dramatically as she entered and I hurried to finish getting ready. I threw on a soft cotton sundress and my flip flops, pulled my hair up off the back of my neck in a ponytail and fifteen minutes later, I was ready to go spend the day with my girls.

"Oh, let's go in here!" Charlotte grabbed my arm and just about pulled it from the socket trying to get me to go into one of the little shops in Atlantic Station. She was trying to find something to send her little sister back at home and we had been in and out of every single little souvenir shop on the island.

Every. Single. One.

I actually welcomed the air conditioning in the shop and there were some cute things hidden here and there amongst the hideous. I was positive that Charlotte could find something in here. Her sister, Carmen, was only seven, after all, not exactly hard to please.

"A beach towel?" She shook her head. "What about a kite? A book about mermaids? A hyper color t-shirt?"

_They still make those?_

I slapped my hand across Kate's mouth and shook my head furiously before Kate could suggest the hermit crabs with the bedazzled shells. They would either depress Charlotte beyond belief and we'd end up with thirty of them all over the beach house roaming free like the mice in Cinderella. Or she'd buy one and then we'd have to figure out the logistics of shipping a live animal. And heaven forbid the guilt Charlotte would suffer if it didn't survive the trip.

No. Hermit crabs were a bad idea all around.

Finally content with a mermaid kite and picture book about lighthouses, we left the store and headed next door to Michelangelo's Pizza. It was packed, but we managed to snag a booth after a few minutes and a few flirtatious smiles to the underage host who seemed really impressed by Kate's breasts.

As we sat and waited for our meals, with Charlotte actually finding a vegan alternative on the menu, we talked about all the things we wanted to do while we were here and made plans to come back for at least a week every summer for the rest of our lives. If not Kate's house, then surely we could find another to rent.

There was one down the beach a bit that looked just like the Barbie Dream House, but I couldn't stay in a house that was _that_ pink. If the outside was that hideous, I could only imagine the inside. It probably resembled the inside of a bottle of Pepto-Bismol. We laughed that sometimes we'd bring our families on our vacation and other times it would be just us.

As we enjoyed our lunch, Kate decompressed a little bit, Charlotte understood all the jokes and I found a penis shaped mushroom on my pizza. Which meant that I started thinking about Edward again.

"Bella, are you okay? I asked if you wanted to hit the grocery store while we're here, though I know it's going to be packed," Kate asked as I shook my head to pull myself from my thoughts of Edward. "What's up with you? You look like you're a million miles away and you're all splotchy." Charlotte giggled and I bumped her with my knee to get her to shut up. The last thing I needed was her blabbing to Kate about my morning gawking session of Edward.

"Um, sure. We might as well. What are the plans tonight anyway?"

Kate started throwing out some suggestions about places to go and watch the fireworks or about how there were usually bonfires on the beach after the fireworks were over and how they were always fun. I found it a little bit odd that she didn't want to find some big party somewhere and get wasted, but it was fine with me. I hated chaos and big crowds were definitely not my scene. I was good with low key.

We walked over to Food Lion and got the last shopping cart in the corral. I grabbed the front end of the cart, Kate steered and Charlotte scouted out our path. It was like one of those cornfield mazes, you couldn't see the way out and you just had to go on instinct. Which was probably why I didn't see Edward and Peter until I almost ran them over with the cart.

What was it with me and running into Edward? Not that I objected.

Sadly, this time he was clothed. Not that I wanted the tourists and old ladies in the Food Lion scoping out his junk. A twinge of jealously hit me as I realized I didn't want anyone but me seeing his junk. I shook the thought from my mind and looked up at the guys as I noticed Kate glare at me from the corner of my eye.

"Hey guys!" I started talking before Kate could start complaining and the smile on Edward's face made my heart skip a beat. I was grinny, I admit it. "Want to share our cart? Where's Garrett?"

"We're almost done, actually." Peter gestured to their cart, which was pretty full and I felt just a little bit stupid about not noticing. Then again, their cart wasn't what I was looking at. I did notice, however, that they didn't mention Garrett. I only mentioned him so Kate would relax. She looked like she was waiting for him to jump around the corner at any second and say something else to cause her to fly into a rage. I think if Kate said the sky was blue, then Garrett would argue that it was lime-green, just to piss her off.

My eyes never left Edward's while Peter and Charlotte carried on a conversation and I noticed that Kate got fed up and grabbed our cart mentioning something about meeting us in the cereal aisle. I don't know.

"So." Edward hiccupped and I smiled because it was cute.

"So." This was going well.

"All unpacked? Having a good vacation?" _Hiccup._

"Yeah. Not as relaxing as I had hoped, but I'm hoping things change." Hint. Hint.

_Hiccup._

"So."

_Hiccup._

"Do you want some water or something?" I turned to grab the cart that I had forgotten wasn't there. "Oh, that's right. Kate took it." I shrugged and started looking over in their cart. "That's a lot of meat." Holy innuendo.

_Hiccup. Hiccup. Hiccup._

I could feel my face start to heat up and I focused again on finding some water for Edward, if only to keep my obvious humiliation hidden from view. Finally, I found some water and pulled a bottle from the plastic ring holding the bottles together.

"Hey, do me a favor and cut those up before you put them in the recycling, okay?" I nodded towards Charlotte who was still talking to Peter and oblivious to the hiccup situation unfolding between Edward and I. "She gets a bit emotional over environmental issues."

"I'll do it as soon as we get back." He took the bottle from me and drank a bit of water. I watched, entranced, as a drop escaped the corner of his mouth and slid slowly down the side of his chin.

I wanted to lick it.

"All better?"

"Much. So…we're planning on staying around the house tonight. Cooking out on the barbecue and watching the fireworks. Y'all want to join us? Assuming you don't have any plans, of course." I looked at Charlotte, who looked back and grinned.

"Can you get me some tofu dogs?" Charlotte asked as Peter readily agreed. Since Kate wasn't there to object, we accepted.

She'd just have to deal.

**EPOV**

In hindsight, it probably wasn't the best idea to invite the girls to join us for our last minute barbecue. I mean, sure it would be great to have them hang out with us, and I was dying for a little more time with Bella, preferably alone, but we didn't have enough food.

So, while Garrett decided to ditch us for some rather busty blonde he had been following around all day like a lost puppy, Peter and I found ourselves circling back around the Food Lion after running into the girls, to pick up more stuff and we had already bought way too much as it was.

It took over an hour to get everything we needed, not because of anything we did, but because of the sheer number of people in the store with us. The cashiers were a little slow, no doubt pissed they were working on July 4th, and the guys bagging groceries just looked at Peter and I like we were pariahs. Was it that obvious we were tourists? It's not like we were wearing fanny packs or socks with sandals.

The moment we got back to the beach house, we shoved the food into the fridge and Peter looked at me with a serious expression on his face. "So...you like Bella, huh?"

"Shit, am I that obvious?" I questioned anxiously as my hand found the back of my neck and I started scratching it relentlessly, which was one of my nervous habits. That and the hiccups. Whenever I seemed to get really anxious about something, like when I took my SAT's for example, I would get a serious case of the hiccups that could last for hours. It's embarrassing and I was truly hoping to avoid them this summer, but with Bella around constantly, I'm not sure I wouldn't.

Thankfully she didn't seem to mind my little jag of them at the grocery store and was even sweet enough to get me some water. I may have wanted to kiss her the moment she handed me the bottle, but I couldn't exactly do that with Peter and Charlotte standing two feet away and Kate wandering around the store, stewing about something Garrett had probably done in his effort to screw with her.

"Well, I only caught you staring at her legs and her ass like forty times today. I'm shocked you weren't looking at her tits because let me just say..."

"No...don't say anything, keep it to yourself," I stated roughly as Peter smiled happily, like he always did. Regardless of everything, though Peter was very quiet, he was also the happiest guy I knew. "Wait...do we have to call dibs on these girls, cause if so I am calling Bella right the fuck now."

"This isn't like riding shotgun in a car, dipshit. You don't have to lay claim to the girl you like." Peter grinned from ear to ear before continuing, and shocking the fuck out of me. "Anyways, I kinda like Charlotte."

"Uh...what was that?"

"I like Charlotte. She's smart and beautiful and just...different."

"The girl cried when you threw out the newspaper this morning. I would certainly say that was 'different'."

"She was being environmentally conscious when she grabbed it back out of the trash. It's a quality we should admire, not make fun of."

"Oh, I wouldn't have made fun of her if she had recycled it. Instead she mumbled something about finding it a good home. It wasn't a stray fricking kitten dude, it was a newspaper."

"Like I said...she's different."

"Okay, I'm good with it. If you like the girl, more power to you. Just...don't offer her a napkin tonight if she spills something. She might have a meltdown, oh and cut up the plastic rings from the bottled water. Bella said Charlotte is a bit of an environmentalist, or maybe she was just mental." Just then Peter punched me heavily in the shoulder, but I still couldn't help the laugh that came forth. "As for the Bella thing, let's just downplay that for now. I'm gonna play it cool because I want to know if she is interested in me before I go ahead and put myself out there."

"If you say so. Now, let's go get ready. It's almost six and the girls said they would be back by six thirty." Peter and I gave each other a high five, and then felt a little lame afterwards, before we headed off separately. There were three showers in the house, but since Peter had jumped into the one near our room first, and Kate locked the door to her bedroom preventing use of her private bathroom, I had to use the other one. The one I had fallen and flashed my junk at Bella in.

I showered as quickly as I could, wanting to get the sweat from the day outside off of me. Sure, I had showered this morning after my run, where I had tried unsuccessfully to get Bella out of my head, but I needed one again.

Of course, just like this morning, I began to have rather explicit thoughts of Bella, but decided it would probably be pretty nasty to stand in her shower and jerk off to thoughts of her. Of course, it didn't help matters that the entire shower smelled like her. It was almost pure torture to stand there, fighting against my arousal, as I tried to shower. I think I forgot to clean most of myself.

When I finished, I wrapped my towel around my waist as tightly as I could and when I stepped into the hallway, Bella turned a corner and walked right smack into me. "Oomph," she cried out as I fought back the urge to hold her against me. Shit, now I was getting hard and all I was wearing was a towel. The last thing I wanted was to salute Bella with little Edward, but this towel wasn't exactly going to hide much.

"Sorry I used your bathroom, Peter was in ours," I said as quickly as possible as I held my towel closed and turned around, practically sprinting away from Bella as fast as I could. The last thing I needed was for her to get the wrong impression. I mean, yes, I thought she was gorgeous and smart, but did I need to assault her with my cock at every opportunity? Ummm no.

Thirty minutes later, as Peter and I stood beside the grill outside trying to figure out how to work the damn thing, Bella and Charlotte made an appearance with Kate dragging ass behind them. Clearly she didn't want to be with all of us.

"For two apparently smart guys, you are pretty dumb," Kate replied acerbically as she bent down behind the barbecue and turned a knob that was attached to the wall. "It's a gas barbecue."

"And we were supposed to know that how?" I replied snidely as Bella gave me a small smile and then headed back into the house for a moment. I couldn't help but notice the sundress she was wearing and how it hugged all of her curves perfectly. Hell, I may have even stared a little too long at her back, which was exposed because the ties of the dress wrapped around her neck. I kinda wanted to run my hands slowly up her back and just feel her soft skin. Sure, I didn't know if it was _actually_ soft, but I was pretty sure of it.

"The lack of a propane or charcoal should have made it obvious," she snapped back as she pulled me from my thoughts of Bella's back and I watched as Bella returned and handed her friend a beer. Kate quickly wrenched it open and took a long pull from it.

"Take it easy on the boys, Kate. I'm sure they've barbecued something in their time, right?" Bella questioned as I nodded my head and Peter did the same. "Why don't you go chill on the lounger and play Angry Birds on your iPhone. Take out your frustration on something else for while?" I had to admit, I was kinda shocked when Kate gave Bella a small hug and then went to sit down.

"Uh...thanks for that," I said simply as Peter and Charlotte went into the house to get the burgers and hot dogs and we had picked up for dinner. Charlotte had decided to cook her own dinner in the kitchen rather than on the grill with all the 'animals'. "She's a little...overwhelming, I guess you could say."

"Well that's putting it nicely," Bella laughed as I turned the barbecue on and tried to pretend like there was nothing else in the world, except for the sound of her voice. "Kate can be a bit of a bitch, but I promise her bark is worse than her bite. I think she's just a little disappointed that her summer hasn't gotten off to the start she thought it would."

"You mean because we are here, right?" Bella nodded her head softly as she looked at her friend who was cursing something about sticky buttons and shitty blue birds. "How do you feel about it?"

"I'm glad you're here, Edward." Bella blushed again and I felt the urge to push some of her hair behind her ear as I stared into her beautiful brown eyes, but a loud obnoxious giggling from an unknown voice pulled us from our moment. And we were definitely having a moment.

"Okay, we're here, the party can start!" Garrett shouted as he climbed up the stairs from the beach with his arm slung around the busty blonde he had been practically stalking earlier. "Everyone, this is Lauren. Lauren...this is everyone," Garrett declared dramatically as his hand swept across the group of us who were on the deck, Charlotte and Peter having joined us a moment earlier with the meat.

"Hi!" Lauren said with a little too much excitement before her fingers started running down Garrett's shirt as she looked up at the house. "Is this place all yours, baby?" she purred, no doubt attracted to the potential size of his wallet and not specifically him. "It's so big!"

"Oh it's big alright," Garrett declared, his comment laced with sexual innuendo as Lauren laughed like a raving idiot beside him, thinking it was the funniest thing she'd ever heard. "Come on baby, how about I go show you how big it really is?" Garrett winked at me as he pulled Lauren through the back door and into the house.

"He's got crabs," Kate suddenly shouted as all of us broke out into fits of laughter. "And he doesn't own the house. He's a broke college student, not some multi-millionaire." We all stopped for a second and looked at Kate curiously. "What? I may have heard some of the lines he was using on that dumb skank earlier today at one of the two dozen gift shops Charlotte dragged us into. She didn't really think he invented Twitter, did she? Ugh..."

"Yeah, that one has never worked for him before, I don't know why he would try now," Peter commented before he opened up the barbecue and set to working on dinner. Since we had invited the girls, I had to help, so while he barbecued, I got everything ready outside on the table, cutlery, plates and the salads we had gotten at the grocery store. I kept glancing over to the lounge chairs where Bella sat with her girlfriends, drinking beer and enjoying themselves. It was nice to see her so in her element and it made me more attracted to her, if that was even possible.

Two hours later, long after we had finished dinner and the sun was setting, Garrett finally stumbled down the stairs by himself. "Where's the skank?" Kate questioned with a slur to her voice. She had definitely had the most beer out of all of us.

"She wasn't a skank and she left a while ago," he replied with resignation in his voice. "She...doesn't put out on the first date...or the second...or the third...or before marriage." I had to admit that Garrett looked a bit disappointed, but once he had a bottle of beer in his hand, he seemed to relax a bit. "I mean...she totally acted like she wanted it, but when I offered it up, she turned me down. I don't smell do I?"

"You do have a certain stench of desperation," Kate chimed in with a giggle as Garrett turned around and stared her down.

"No one asked you, slagathor."

"Actually, you didn't address anyone in specific," Peter replied as Kate gave him a thumbs-up and took another huge gulp of her beer. I was initially shocked at how well the girls were putting away their drinks, but when Bella began explaining to me about some bar with blue cups and how often they went, courtesy of her fake I.D. since she wouldn't be twenty-one until September, everything sort of fell into place.

"Are you on her side now?"

"There's no sides to be taken," Peter defended as Garrett glared at him as well. "Listen man, don't dwell on it. Move on and forget about her. There's a burger left on the grill for you. Eat something, you'll feel better."

"Okay, Dad," Garrett said sarcastically as I noticed out of the corner of my eye that Bella was descending the stairs by herself. I looked again, and sure enough, she was motioning with her hand for me to join her. I even did one of those weird movie-esque things where I pointed at myself, unsure that she really wanted me to come join her, but sure enough, Bella nodded her head. I tried to excuse myself as casually as I could and two minutes later, Bella and I were sitting side by side on the beach, our toes digging into the warm sand.

"Kate told me that in like, five minutes, they are going to start lighting off fireworks just over there," she explained slowly as she pointed towards the pier where we were earlier in the day.

"Wouldn't we have seen them better from the deck?" I asked stupidly as I ground my fist into the sand between us. Why the hell would I say that? This was stressful enough to me without having to worry about saying something stupid. Heck, I could already feel the hiccups coming on.

"It's too bright up there. It's better to see the fireworks when it's dark outside. They are more colorful and intense."

"Ah...that makes sense."

"Also, Kate and Garrett's constant bickering is getting on my nerves," she said lazily as I watched her fingers draw in the sand in front of her. "Tell me something no one knows...something secret?"

Shit...what the hell would I tell her? That I almost jerked off in her shower a few hours ago or that since we had arrived she had taken over my every thought? Nope...too stalkerish. I had to go with something less creepy and more romantic, or sweet.

"When we shook hands the other day...I got this shock to my system. It was unexplainable, but not unwelcome." Suddenly, I felt Bella's hand against mine again as she entwined her fingers with mine and we rested them on the sand between us, both of us moving a bit closer. Oddly enough, the shock was still there.

"Like this?"

"Yeah...just like that."

"I felt it too," Bella blushed again and I wasn't sure if it was from the beer she had consumed all night or from me...or us. "I still feel it. It's not unwelcome to me either. I really like it."

Right then, a loud boom sounded and bright, beautiful fireworks began going off over the water as Bella and I sat perfectly still, our hand clasped tightly together as we watched the vivid colors. Every so often Bella and I would look over at each other, but otherwise, we didn't say a word.

It was perfect.


	3. Like A Virgin  GPOV Outtake from Ch2

**Evening! This is update two of two for today. Consider it out July 4th gift to our US readers.  
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**Risbee and coldplaywhore don't own Twilight. We do have some great support from MaggieMay14 and smmiskimen to get this story out to you. This is a short snippit from Garrett's alone time in the house with Lauren, the girl he picked up in Chapter 2.  
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**Enjoy!**

**Chapter Song: Like a Virgin by Madonna**

**GPOV**

"This house is like so...just so..."

"Spectacular?" I asked, as I led Lauren through the living room area, her eyes darting around quickly as she tried to take everything in. Of course my eyes were glued to her enticing cleavage because I was sure that her rack was at least a 38 D. I knew bra sizes. I was a connoisseur of bra sizes. Hell, more often than not I could look at girls' tits and guess the size accurately.

Lauren let out a sigh, pulling me from my thoughts of her boobs and I noticed that she looked very impressed by the artwork and over all décor that my brother-in-law had splurged on when he bought this place, like fifteen years ago when Tanya was still into Barbie's, for fucks sake.

Yeah, it still sounded strange to call him my brother-in-law, but since the old fart had somehow convinced Tanya to marry him, and she had insisted I stop calling him the crypt keeper, I supposed that brother-in-law would have to do.

"It's huge...do like...all of you live here?" Lauren asked as she turned back around to stare out at the deck where the gang was all enjoying themselves. I felt out of place when my boys, Edward and Peter, wanted to hang out with the girls, and I could tell they did. Hell, they were both giving Bella and Charlotte the sex eye since the moment they saw them.

But there was no way in hell I was ending up with the Hamburgler.

Kate, though somewhat attractive, had the personality of a rock. There was just nothing there. Either she was shooting daggers at me or she was making a snide comment about my sister. Now, I had to admit that Tanya didn't always make the best choices in her life, see her current marriage as an example, but I supported her anyways.

"Uh yeah...we're all here."

"Those girls are so pretty."

"They're fine, if you are in to that sort of thing."

"You're not...into pretty girls?" Lauren asked as she began to twirl her hair between her fingers and I gave her a sideways glance. Was she implying that I was gay? What the fuck? I wouldn't have brought her here if I was batting for the other team, would I?

"Yeah, I'm into pretty girls, but you are the prettiest one here," I replied as I stepped towards her and kissed her on the cheek. Girls always loved that shit...go slow and woo them, right? "Do you want to go see upstairs?" Lauren nodded and I gripped her hand tightly in mine as I finished showing her what I could of the main floor before I took her upstairs, specifically to my room.

Thankfully the boys had agreed to give me the larger bedroom, though I was pissed that Kate took the master bedroom. I certainly could have had a hell of a time with a couple of girls in that bathroom. It had the biggest whirlpool tub I had ever seen.

"So...are you on Facebook, Garrett?" Lauren suddenly asked me as we stepped in the door of my room.

"Uh...sure, sure," I responded as I shut my door behind us and wrapped my arm around Lauren's waist, leading her over to my bed. I began nuzzling my nose against her neck, trying to get her to pay attention to me, but Lauren seemed in a different place, so I thought it was best if I played along.

"Are _you_ on Facebook, baby?"

"Yeah...I got like 27 friends." Umm...ok. Hell, my grandmother had more friends than that. "I'm also part of a celibacy group on there called 'Perky for Purity.' It was founded by some people at my church." I suddenly began choking so hard on air that Lauren wrapped her arms around my chest and thought she was giving me the Heimlich maneuver but all she did was crack a rib. She was longer than she looked...and her looks were totally deceiving.

"You're a virgin?"

"Yup, since forever." Well yeah, no shit since forever. It's not like you can go back on being virgin. This was literally my worst nightmare come to life. This girl was hot...like a total ten and I was maybe a nine, and everything about her screamed 'sex pot' but apparently I was losing my touch.

Lauren pulled me down onto the bed beside her and proceeded to spend the next hour telling me about her church and their little Facebook group, all the while I was certain my face displayed a look of horror. Why on earth would such a hot young thing purposely avoid sex? Hell, half the time she was talking I was thinking about motor-boating her boobs. That probably wasn't a good idea.

"Garrett, are you listening to me?"

"Honestly, no," I replied as Lauren looked at me with sadness on her face. "You lost me at purity rings."

"That was forty minutes ago."

"Yes, yes it was..."

"I should probably go," Lauren said simply as I tried not to speak the snide, sarcastic comments that were currently rolling through my head.

"I'll walk you out," I replied, trying to keep some semblance of cool, but Lauren just looked at me with frustration.

"Uh no...I think I can find my way," she snipped as I quirked my eye brows at her and watched as she strolled out of the room and immediately headed the wrong way and walked into Peter's bedroom.

"Lauren...to the left and down the stairs, hon," I called out as I stood in my doorway, leaning against the jamb and watching as she tried to calm herself before she strode down the stairs and out the front door.

Fuck, this was a disaster. If this was any indication of how my summer was going to go, I might as well head back to Wake Forest.

Then again, I wouldn't give Kate that satisfaction.


	4. Yellow Polka Dot Bikini

**We're back, and today there will be a second update. Can you believe it? Two updates in one day. Don't count on that happening too often. LOL**

**For those of you who have asked, yes we know the Emerald Isle area of North Carolina well. Hardly any research has been necessary and everything is legit. We promise. Mucho thanks to MaggieMay14 and smmiskimen for their beta help. They rock.  
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**We don't own Twilight or it's characters. CPW did get to meet Jackson Rathbone and several wonderful fanfic ladies last night at the 100 Monkeys concert in Toronto. She says he's a million times hotter in person. CPW was also sad Risbee wasn't there.  
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**Chapter Song: Itsy Bisty Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini**

**BPOV**

"So, what are we going to do today? I could deal with some beach time." Charlotte sat cross-legged on my bed, braiding and unbraiding my hair while Kate thumbed through the latest issue of People magazine.

For the past few days, the atmosphere had improved from blatant animosity and utter hatred to one of ambivalence. Though it was probably due to the fact that we'd spent a tremendous time away from the house and not because of any acceptance on Kate's part. She'd taken on the role of camp director in an effort to keep us busy and away from Garrett and his endless stream of 'floozies'. Her word, not mine; but if I was basing judgment strictly on appearances, she was right.

"I could deal with a lazy day too. That was the whole point of this summer, right? Because we will have to start real life next summer…assuming we get jobs anyway." I rolled my eyes at that because both girls knew the grief I'd endured since declaring my studio art major. The number of times I'd been asked 'what are you going to do once you graduate' was countless and annoying.

"Sure. We can load up a few coolers, drive down to the public access and just hang. There are always some boys trying to surf near the pier. It could be fun, I guess."

Kate was on a mission to stay away from the house and I looked wistfully out the sliding glass door and at the wooden walkway that led to the beachfront right…there. "You know, I heard that the guys were driving over to Greenville for the day. Something about Peter wanting to look at ECU's med school since he needed to start working on applications. It takes about an hour to get there, so they could be gone all day if they eat some lunch or Garrett finds something, I mean someone, he likes."

I could see the wheels turning in Kate's head as she did the math and both Charlotte and I turned on the puppy dog eyes. The idea of not driving to a beach and having drinks, bathrooms and food at our fingertips whenever we wanted it was so appealing. "Please?"

Charlotte shoved my head out of her lap and nuzzled over to Kate. "Please Kate?"

I crawled over to her other side and rested my head on her shoulder. "Come on. You know you wanna."

"I want you to," said a voice that certainly didn't belong to any of us. The three of us turned to the doorway where Garrett stood, leaning against the door frame waggling his eyebrows and looking more than a little bit amused. "Don't move. No, wait. Start moving, but take your clothes off first." He pulled his iPhone out of his pocket and held it in front of him as if he were recording.

"You are such a fucking pig!" Kate lunged, flinging Charlotte off the far side of the bed and, even though I managed to grab her around the waist, it was all I could do to keep her from going airborne. Kate was freakishly strong.

"And you are completely psycho. Good lord woman, I was kidding. The last thing I want is to see _you_ naked."

"It worked for Greg and Marcia." Charlotte chimed in from the floor. "And Greg and Mrs. Brady for that matter."

"Not helping." I whispered harshly but inside I was fighting the urge to giggle and vomit because honestly, that was a little bit disgusting and a lot of bad hair. I had pinned Kate down by lying across her waist but that didn't stop her from hurling whatever she could reach in Garrett's direction. Pillows, magazines, and the plastic cup of water I kept by my bed…

"Garrett, just go. Find Edward and Peter and get out of here. Please." I don't know if it was the desperation in my voice, or the fact that Kate had grabbed the lamp and he knew that it was going to be the next thing hurled at his head, but he put his hands up in defeat and backed away from the door. "Whatever. It's not like I can't get other girls to go at it for me."

The lamp crashed at his feet and he stormed off as Kate started screaming about how much she hated him and that she was going to get him out of the house if it was the last thing she did.

So much for ambivalence.

"Can one of you toss me the sunscreen; I'm starting to sizzle over here." I didn't even open my eyes as I made my request because the combination of the sun and the steady lull of the waves were making me soooo sleepy.

After the excitement from this morning had died down, we finally convinced Kate that leaving the house wasn't inconveniencing Garrett at all. He didn't care whether we were here or not and that if she wanted him gone, she had to make him want to leave. After a tearful and frantic phone call to her dad, and then her mom in New York who threatened to take legal action against Garrett for harassment, she came upstairs and said that we weren't going anywhere. Oh. Gee. Damn. More time near Edward. I hoped the sacrifice would be worth it.

But back to the more pressing issue, I was caught somewhere between being in a state of consciousness and dreamland and even more of a concern was not the sunscreen as much as how I was going to apply it without moving, because I did not want to move. At all.

There was no response from my friends and I wanted to cry because I was that comfortable and didn't want to move to get sunscreen on. I had spent fifteen minutes once we got down to the beach raking away the shells and smoothing out a comfortable surface so I could lie on my stomach. I needed to balance the sun I'd managed to get on my front, because I was starting to look like I had a mom tan.

I knew my days of front only tans and bathing suits with skirts would come, but for now, I was quite happy to be able to wear my itsy bitsy teeny weeny yellow polka dot bikini. I had spent weeks drooling over it online and finally decided to treat myself after surviving finals. Hell, every time I looked at it online I would break into song. The problem was, was that this particular shade of yellow didn't look as good when my skin was red.

"Come on y'all…" I giggled to myself as I realized that, after spending three years in North Carolina, I was starting to pick up the vernacular and a bit of an accent. "Seriously, I need it."

"Yeah, you do. Maybe Edward can help you out since you two seemed so chummy the other night. I'm assuming you liked what you saw in the shower, which you still haven't spilled about by the way." I turned my head slowly and opened one eye to see Kate grinning mischievously at me and I tried to give her the stink eye, but with only the one eye open, I think I looked more like Popeye than a threat. So I flipped her off.

"If you want the sunscreen, you'll start talking, and speak slowly. Don't leave out any details either."

"It really wasn't a big deal." I turned over and sat up on my elbows, squinting at the sun in my eyes. It was so beautiful here.

"Interesting choice of words and honestly, it makes me a little sad for him."

"No! That's not what I was saying…"

"So what were you saying? That it was a _big_ deal?" She started waving the bottle in front of me and I lunged for it, but she pulled it back before I could grab it.

"I'm not saying anything. I thought it was Charlotte in the shower since we couldn't find her, then Edward poked his head out from around the curtain…" Kate snorted. "No, not that head, perv."

"It's a reasonable assumption since you saw it."

"You have tunnel vision. Anyway, he poked his head around the curtain and I guess the water turned cold or something, but he sorta slipped out of the shower and fell on his ass. Then you came in and started screaming about how unfair everything was and that was it."

She folded her arms across her chest, and for a second, I was afraid a boob was going to come flying out of the top of her suit, but thankfully those things were strapped in there like Fort Knox. Not that I hadn't thought about girls before, who hadn't had a quick thought about experimenting in college, but Kate was a bit high maintenance for me and really, all I could think about lately was Edward.

"That was so anticlimactic, Bella. Really, I'm honestly bored now." She tossed me the sunscreen and I reluctantly sat up and started to spray it on my arms and legs.

"I told you it wasn't anything huge." We both grinned and things were good again. Well, it was certainly a decent size, but I wasn't going to tell her that. The less she knew about Edward's junk, the more secure I felt.

"Whatever." I handed her back the sunscreen and she tossed it in the bag by her side. "I'm going to go into the house and refill my margarita. Anybody need anything?"

"Fill me up please." I handed her my insulated water bottle and winked before looking at Charlotte. "You're a genius, by the way." I don't know why we hadn't thought of using them before, but I had a feeling this would be a repeat venture. Kate started walking up the beach back towards the house and I blew her a kiss before moving to her chair, next to Charlotte.

"Whatcha looking at?" She was staring over to her left at the water and looked amused.

"I'm not sure exactly. There are three guys over there pretending to surf. One looks frustrated, one looks bored and the other looks like he's so excited that he can't stand it." I followed her gaze to the three figures I saw paddling in the water.

"Um, don't you need waves to surf?" I asked sarcastically because really, you could hardly call the waves here, well, waves. The water was ridiculously calm and only during major storms or hurricanes did the waves get big enough to surf on.

"Just watch. It really is kind of funny. Here comes a swell now."

Swell was being generous, but at least there was a bit of a something moving towards them. One of the surfers kept paddling through it waiting, the other sat up on his board and the third…well, he stood up and rode that bad boy all of about three feet before plunging off the side. I waited for him to resurface, but he didn't.

And didn't.

And didn't.

By this point the one sitting on his board started yelling at the third and started to frantically paddle over to the abandoned board which had drifted closer to the shore.

I was about to start running towards them to see if they wanted me to call 911 when, all of a sudden, the missing surfer shot out of the water, whooping and hollering about how he was 'just like Kelly Fucking Slater' fist pumping and flailing around like an absolute idiot. The other two joined in until the entire scene was very reminiscent of Lord of the Flies and you could almost feel the testosterone roll down the beach.

I sat up straighter in Kate's chair, shielding my eyes from the sun and hoping that what I thought I was seeing, was not, in fact, what I was seeing. But it was.

"Damn it." I mumbled and started looking back up at the house to see if Kate was returning with our drinks. Thankfully no.

"What?" Charlotte asked, still staring at the water.

"I think that might be Peter, Garrett and Edward. Maybe."

"Really? Which one is Peter?" She stood up and I grabbed her hand pulling her back down.

"Don't let them see you. If they do, Garrett will come over here, Kate will react and…fuck, I was really hoping to have a day off from the refereeing their constant battles. It's like American Gladiators without the fun Nerf guns or sticks with foam ends." Though she _was_ coming with refills, maybe she'd get drunk and just not realize that the boys were still here.

"He looks hot."

I watched as the three boys continued to horse around in the water, slowly getting closer to our position on the beach. Now that I knew that they were indeed who I thought they were, it was easy to pick out the individuals. Which meant my eyes were focused on shirtless Edward. Shirtless, soaking wet Edward. God bless his skinny hot body.

"Yes he does." I didn't care that we weren't talking about the same one. I'd seen how Peter and Charlotte had peeked at each other over the past few days, so her comment hardly came as a surprise. It was really cute though.

I knew Kate would be back down from the house soon, so I resituated myself on my towel draped over the lounge chair, but this time my head was towards the water instead of the dunes. With my sunglasses on, I could watch without being seen.

The sun reflected off his hair and the drops of water made it look like his skin sparkled. I swear my top tried to untie itself, but that would have been completely inappropriate, so I reached behind myself and double knotted it. Just in case.

With a margarita on the way, the sun on my skin and a boy in my sights, I fell in love with today.

**EPOV**

When Garrett told us that the girls were staying at the house for the day, under the misconception that we were going out, Peter and I were suddenly overwhelmed with the urge to stay behind. Any chance either of us had to stay and either gawk or talk to the girls, we were on it.

Garrett convinced us that if we were going to stay, we had to at least look busy and this is what led us to attempting to surf. Garrett had it in his little pea-sized brain that the waves on the North Carolina coast would be big enough for us, but they weren't. However, Peter didn't care. He loved every single thing to do with surfing and, even though he couldn't do it and almost drowned, he was in love with the sport of surfing and was vowing to move to Hawaii to perfect his technique.

Of course, it only made the situation ten times better for him that Charlotte was on the beach watching his every move. The boy had it bad…for surfing and the blonde.

I, however, couldn't take my eyes off Bella. She was sprawled out on a lounger, now on her stomach and she had her sunglasses down over her eyes trying to act like she wasn't watching us, but I knew she was. It was pretty funny how incognito we were both trying to be, but we both just wanted to know the other more. At least I think that was what was going on. I hoped I wasn't wrong.

The one thing I wasn't wrong about was that bikini she was wearing was evil.

It was a creation of the devil himself. It was tiny...and I mean fucking minuscule. In fact, it should barely be considered fabric it was so small, but I couldn't take my eyes off of Bella. It didn't help that her arms were propped up on the lounge chair and the scene between her forearms was like every one of my wet dreams come true since I had first laid eyes on her.

Jesus, her cleavage was enticing.

I was positive I would be whacking off to it later tonight.

Garrett grabbed my arm and we decided that seeing Peter almost drown was enough for one day and we headed back to the shore. The closer I got to Bella, the harder it was to breathe. It was all sorts of fucked up. As we put our surfboards back into the storage shed, I heard laughter coming from the direction of the girls.

"Let's just go and see what they are up to. It can't hurt, right?" Peter suggested, and I knew he just wanted to see Charlotte up close. Garrett just shrugged his shoulders in indifference and we headed towards the giggling. As we approached, I was trying to act all casual but then I noticed the ruffles that covered her ass. Jesus fuck. This bikini was a modern day torture device.

"Uh, earth to Edward," Peter stated as he snapped his fingers in front of my face and I shook my head again, trying to rid my mind of the thoughts currently swirling around. Suddenly I had a vision of Austin Powers chanting 'Margaret Thatcher naked on a cold day' and after repeating the mantra to myself a few times, things in my lower half seemed to calm down a bit.

"So ladies…having an interesting day?" Garrett asked as he sat down on the end of Charlotte's chair and Kate suddenly made her way down the stairs with drinks in her hands.

"Oh no…no, no, just no. You guys aren't supposed to be here right now!"

"I'm not even supposed to be here today," Peter stated as everyone looked at him curiously, not sure what the heck he was going on about. "You know...it's a quote from that movie _Clerks_. Oh come on, it was funny shit."

"Anyways, you need to calm the fuck down, Kate. Take some Xanax or something, maybe a whole bottle full."

"You are such an asshole, Garrett," Kate stated firmly as she handed both of the drinks to Bella and then clenched her fist, pretending to reach out and punch Garrett, I was actually shocked when he flinched. "And one who is scared of a girl apparently."

"Well at least I don't run the other way constantly," Garrett replied snidely as I looked over at Bella and she was rolling her eyes. "This is going to be a long summer if you are repeatedly trying to hide from me."

"At least you realize it's just you we are trying to hide from," Kate snapped back as Bella held up her hands in self defense.

"For the record, I am not trying to hide from anyone. I'd actually like it we could all get along and spend time together," Bella explained as Charlotte nodded her head eagerly and Peter and I both agreed. "See, so it's just the two of you who are having issues. Perhaps you need to sit down and hash it out."

"There's nothing to discuss," Kate stated firmly as she took one of the drinks from Bella and proceeded to take a huge gulp of the contents. "His trashy, gold-digging sister married a defenseless older man who was clearly not in his right mind, taking complete advantage of him and his generosity."

"Don't call my sister a gold-digger; you don't know the first thing about Tanya and I," Garrett declared, and I was actually surprised to see him get so worked up. "Perhaps I should be more concerned about how your dad, a man over twenty years older than her, was hitting on her when she was a mere twenty-two years old. I mean, fuck…that's just gross."

"At least we agree on one thing…it is fucking disturbing." Garrett gave a small smile, which Kate surprisingly returned and then the oddest thing happened…the arguing stopped. Although, from the looks of surprise on the faces of my friends, no one expected the cease fire to end; it was just on a brief hiatus.

We all sat around on the beach and the girls drank whatever the hell was in their cups, and they ragged on us about our complete lack of surfing skills. It was fun and casual, and even though Kate and Garrett completely ignored the others presence, it was almost normal.

As dinnertime approached, Charlotte and Peter volunteered to grill some chicken on the barbecue and Kate and Garrett both decided to head inside for a bit before we ate. I was positively thrilled with the chance to spend a little time with Bella.

A few minutes later, Bella and I found ourselves sitting alone on the loungers as all our friends disappeared. I had to admit, it was kind of nice to just be able to sit with her, and now that she had put on a t-shirt, I was a little less distracted by all the skin. Of course, it didn't help matters that she was wearing my shirt and I may have been giddy like a schoolgirl at the whole idea.

"So...Wake Forest huh? What made you go there?" Bella questioned as she rolled onto her side and stared at me. I moved and copied her position, my head resting on my forearm as I felt the urge to tell her everything - my entire life story.

"I needed a change of scenery."

"From where?"

"Chicago," I stated simply as Bella's eyes grew a bit wide. "My dad is a rather successful surgeon and my mother is his high school sweetheart. I had a pretty great life back in Illinois, but to be honest, I felt like my life was rather sheltered. I just wanted to see a bit more of the country, ya know?"

"So you came to North Carolina? I would think you would want to go somewhere more worldly like New York , London or Los Angeles."

"I've done the big city thing. I wanted something smaller."

"And 400,000 is small to you?"

"Smaller than the three million in Chicago, yeah. What about you?"

"My town had like four thousand people. Chapel Hill is a huge metropolis to me, even though it's not that big in the grand scheme of things." I nodded my head in understanding and listened intently as Bella described life back in rural Forks, Washington, with her police chief father and librarian mother. It was from spending her afternoons at the library with her mother that Bella developed a love of books, but she couldn't help the draw she felt to art, which is why she was a studio art major at UNC.

She didn't come off like the usual nut job art majors I had met in my past, but as I listened to Bella discuss her love of mixed media and how much she enjoyed combining various materials to create a work of art, it was clear she lived for what she did. "How did your parents feel about you doing art for a living?"

"My dad was the usual…kinda gruff and worried I wouldn't be able to make a living. I think he thought I would end up at a Holiday Inn on weekends selling my paintings for less than it cost to make them or something like that. My mother encouraged it all. She was one of those flighty types who was always signing us up for different classes so we could learn something new. Thanks to her I learned how to watercolor paint, throw pottery and I even took a water aerobics class. She didn't see that it was just for seniors and well…they were just too sweet to us to stop going."

I grinned happily at Bella, but her next question caught me a bit off guard. "Your dad wanted you to be a doctor, didn't he?"

"How did you know?"

"Don't most parents want their kids to follow in their footsteps?"

"Did your dad want you to be a cop?"

"No, he wanted me to become a professional fisherman. That's where his heart truly lies…in his sixteen foot fishing boat that he has docked out on Lake Pleasant near Beaver…"

"Woah…wait. There's a town named Beaver near you?"

"Yeah, but there's apparently a town in Canada named Dildo, so I figure Beaver isn't that bad, right?"

"Ugh, could you imagine living in a place named Dildo? I mean, who the fuck thought _that_ was a good idea?"

"You are dodging the question…did your parents want you to be a doctor?" I paused for a moment, thinking hard about Bella's question, because I didn't want to paint a bad picture of my father. Sure, he had dreams, but he was proud of me and my accomplishments regardless of what he initially wanted for me.

"My dad may have had pipe dreams at one point, but since my mom spent most of her time shuttling me between music lessons, it didn't take him long to realize that I loved music more than medicine. I began tutoring in my final year of high school and education just fell into place. I'll never play the guitar like Stevie Ray Vaughan or Slash, but I can teach someone to play that well, I think."

"That's awesome," Bella declared as I noticed a few strands of hair fall down in front of her face, and though my fingers twitched, I withheld the urge to push them behind her ear. It was actually kinda sexy the way it looked, but this urge to touch her thing was becoming a regular occurrence. "So, what made you come to Emerald Isle?"

"It was supposed to be a last hurrah of sorts before senior year kicked in and we had to become adults," I replied with a groan as Bella sat up quickly and looked at me with a huge, adorable smile that stretched across her entire face.

"Oh my god, that is exactly why we are here. Kate was bound and determined for us to have the best summer ever, and I just wanted to relax. I've been sketching some new ideas in my free time and sleeping in, well…sorta.

Bella's hesitance in her last statement made me very curious. "Why only sorta?"

"Well uh…there's kinda this cute guy who likes to run on the beach every morning, and sometimes, or every day, I might wake up and watch him like a stalker." My heart fell in my chest at her words and I suddenly wished I hadn't gotten my hopes up about Bella. Of course she would have wanted to talk to me, her friend, about the guy she was crushing on.

I sat up and rested my back against the slats of the lounge chair, cringing inwardly as Bella continued on. "Yeah, he's just…I've been attracted to him basically since the moment I laid eyes on him, but he's kinda...forbidden." Great…he was forbidden. This probably meant he was old as fuck. I should have known someone as cool as Bella would want some guy with a shit load of experience. Sadly, that was not me.

Don't get me wrong, I've been with my fair share of women in my day, well three, but I wasn't any match for some older guy who knew every trick in the book.

I didn't quite know what to say in response to her, so I kept my mouth shut. However, Bella's hand on my arm pulled me out of my depressing thoughts which involved throwing myself off the roof of the house so I didn't have to spend the summer watching her with some other guy. "I'm sure he's great guy…"

"You do realize I'm talking about you right?"

"You will probably be…wait…what?"

"I was talking about you. In the morning you always go for a run on the beach and I usually grab a coffee and sit on the balcony outside of my room, watching as much as I can. I know I'm a stalker." Bella shoved her head into my t-shirt, not unlike a turtle who was hiding, and it was completely adorable.

I moved from my lounger and sat beside her, pulling the shirt down until her head was back out again. This time, I didn't hesitate in pushing a few stray hairs behind her ears as I cupped her cheek in my anxious hand.

"I'd really like to kiss you right now," I admitted unashamed as Bella smiled and leaned forward slightly, only for both of us to suddenly cry out as cold water was dumped on us from above. Bella jumped off of the chair and was screaming in frustration and when I looked up, I saw Garrett standing there with an empty bucket and a dumb grin on his face.

"That was totally worth it."


	5. I Get By KPOV Outtake from Ch3

**Second update of the day. Short, but sweet. A little look at Kate and her motivations. Who doesn't like insight into characters, right?**

**Huge thanks to smmiskimen who beta'd this for us last night while CPW was at the 100 Monkeys show. She's still swoony over Jackson Rathbone. For the record, she also thinks Ben J. rocks the same 'stache her brother had in the 7th grade.**

**We don't own Twilight or it's characters. We just like to do things a little differently.**

**Chapter Song: I Get By With A Little Help From My Friends**

**KPOV**

Ugh. I threw the kazillion throw pillows across the room and slammed them in the closet. Everything in this house reminded me of her. Which made no sense since the house was decorated impeccably and obviously not in her taste. She was way into bedazzling, which was tacky and so was she.

Never mind that I had idolized her.

Those days were long gone.

Tanya…the daddy stealing blonde bimbo tramp bitch whore. I hated her with every cell in my body. I hated everything about her, including her pig of a brother. I still couldn't believe that he was here and that Daddy was letting him stay.

Tanya probably blew him. Ew, I so didn't need to think about that, but like I said, I had idolized her at first and I knew her modus operandi. What she wanted, she got. Period.

I walked over to my dad's dresser and looked at the framed pictures all neatly arranged, and desperately in need of being updated. We'd been coming here for as long as I can remember, choosing the quiet NC beaches instead of the more commercial Myrtle Beach. He always said it was because he wanted to spend quality time with his family instead of dodging crowds.

We were some fucked up kind of family.

My mom was in New York with her man du jour and my dad was in the middle of his mid-mid-life crisis with her. I didn't have a home; I had two bedrooms in two different states. I had two of every holiday, two cars, I got two checks every month, each trying to total more than the other, though I never told them amounts. I would have given it all up in a hot minute if things would go back to the way they were when we were together.

But they never would. I didn't have a family anymore.

I didn't even realize that I had started crying until I felt Bella wrap her arms around me and give me a good squeeze. Charlotte was quietly shutting the door and locking it. I don't blame her after the scene Garrett made when he saw us in Bella's room earlier today.

Like sister, like brother.

None of this was his fault, and deep down inside I knew this, but he was here. He was close and damn it, if I was going to be miserable this summer, then so was he. If I could find some way to hurt him, then maybe it would hurt her.

"You okay, pretty?" Bella moved us over to the bed where she started braiding my hair, or trying to anyway. Bless her heart, she was gifted as all get out artistically, but she was worthless when it came to fixing hair and makeup and all things girly, but I loved her. So much.

"I'm fine. Just tired, ya know? And I hate this room." I laughed, cackled actually, and picked at the comforter. "I only took it so Garrett wouldn't have it. I don't like sleeping in here, but oh well…I made my bed, I have to sleep in it." I didn't tell them that I had been sleeping on the couch in the sitting area until I had the chance to sneak out and buy new sheets so I wouldn't have to sleep where she slept.

I had watched too many Dateline episodes about bodily fluids on bed linens. Beyond the fact that it would prove that my dad had fucked her…oh my god, bleach my brain now…I knew where she had been and felt pretty sure that she had, at one time, been the owner of a penicillin prescription.

"I trusted her." I didn't even have to say who 'her' was to Bella and Charlotte, but they knew. "I used her ID, I crashed in her apartment, I held her hair when she threw up after a party in Frat Court."

Bella nudged Charlotte who pulled out what looked like a scarecrow made out of vegetables. There was a tomato for the head, a potato for the body, and baby carrots for the arms. The legs were asparagus.

"What the fuck am I supposed to do with this?" I couldn't help but laugh and hold the thing. "Isn't this part of dinner?"

Charlotte nodded and handed me some of those plastic corn holder thingys. "I was watching the National Geographic Channel the other night…"

Of course she was.

"And there was this show called Taboo. They were talking about all sorts of occult things and there was a segment on voodoo dolls." She shrugged and grinned and the girl was so freakin' weird, but she had the biggest heart. "Oh, wait!" She rummaged in the bag for a bit before pulling out a tub of cream cheese and something else that I couldn't see. She turned away from me, taking "Tanya" with her.

Bella peeked over her shoulder and started shrieking she was laughing so hard. "Oh my god! Oh my god! That's classic." Then all sound stopped and her laughter evolved to the kind where there was no noise, no breathing, just open mouths and tears. I couldn't help but start laughing too, even though I didn't know what it was.

Until Charlotte turned back around and "Tanya" had grape boobs.

Best. Friends. Ever.

I stuck the corn holders anywhere and everywhere. I took off arms and legs and told "Tanya" exactly what I thought of her and how I regretted ever introducing her to my dad. I spilled and cried and talked and complained and bitched to Bella and Charlotte, who laughed and cried in the right places and just let me vent.

After I was done and there was no more to say, Charlotte reached back into her bag and pulled out a tub of ranch dip and ate one of Tanya's arms.

I hated admitting when I was wrong, but at that moment I knew that I was wrong about one thing. I did, in fact, have a family. And I was spending the summer with them.


	6. I'm Yours

**We're back and there will be an outtake posting tomorrow morning. We can sense the excitement. This little story was recently rec'd by i'm a random girl on the Twilight Fanfiction Advocacy Blog. Check them out tfadvocacy . blogspot . com. We may love her a little bit right now.**

**We don't own Twilight; we just like playing around with the characters.  
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**Song: I'm Yours by Jason Mraz**

**Chapter 4**

**BPOV**

A few days later, as we walked up from the beach, Kate and Charlotte could barely hold themselves up as we walked towards the house, they were laughing so hard. I, on the other hand, glared at them with my ferocious 'eat shit and die eyes'. Bitches. "Y'all, it wasn't funny at all. I mean really, I could have died down there." I shuddered as a replay of the attack flashed before my eyes. My heart was still racing.

"You're right. It was a very serious incident." Kate stopped and turned around to face me dead serious, but I could tell it was all she could do to keep a straight face. She was biting the insides of her cheeks so hard that she was doing her own version of 'Blue Steel'. "Mr. Crabs could have lost an eye and I'm pretty certain Daddy's homeowners insurance wouldn't cover his medical bills. Of course, then he'd have to cut Tanya off and maybe she'd leave him. Oh, Bella, go do it again!"

"Fuck you." I stormed past them, breaking into a slow jog as I continued up the wooden walkway, which was now hot as balls under my feet. You'd think that after all this time, I would remember that the sun makes the sand and the wood crazy hot by the time we decide to head inside for the day, but the feeling of the sand between my toes was just too good to resist.

Charlotte and Kate waited all of about five seconds after I left them before bursting back into laughter and I held both of my middle fingers up in a gesture that told them exactly how I felt about them at that particular moment. Not really, but still and I'd be lying if I didn't confess that as soon as I was out of sight, I started laughing myself. Both out of nerves and because it wasn't every day that a girl got attacked by a ghost crab.

Earlier, when we returned to the beach after grabbing some lunch, I had spent several minutes clearing my spot of shells and debris so I could be comfy on the sand. Once I was settled, I noticed that there were two little black shells right in front of my nose as I lay on my stomach. I went to go flick one out of the way, but after the first flick, it was still there. So I did it again. The second time, this humongous creature with fangs and drool and foam hurled itself out of the sand directly at my neck.

Fucking vampire crab.

Somehow I escaped its grasp and after a few tense seconds, it decided to move on to a new victim. Needless to say, I was not amused, nor was I able to settle back down and relax. I spent the rest of the afternoon sitting cross-legged in a chair. I'm not sure I'll ever put my face that close to the sand ever again. What made matters worse was that Edward was nowhere in sight to distract me. Then again, I wasn't sure I wanted him around to see the fuckery that was my day.

Once I was back at the house, and my feet were rinsed off at the outside faucet, I walked around the side and through the sliding glass door before heading upstairs to my bedroom. The plan was for us to shower and meet in an hour or so for dinner. We had spent more time around the beach house lately, since Kate decided that she wasn't going to let Garrett run her off, but still, we were keeping pretty busy.

My room was dark because I kept the curtains drawn and it was freezing cold just the way I liked it because of the overhead fans. It felt incredible on my sun-kissed skin and I couldn't wait to get under my sheets and take a quick nap. Between the sun and the constant running around we had been doing, I was really looking forward to a nice quiet late afternoon of nothingness.

I had started to think about my art a little bit, wanting to take a little break after having such a rough semester that was filled with dozens of assignments and challenging exhibits. I really I wanted some time to jot some ideas and images down in my notebook to explore later, but Kate had insisted on a united front and, while I was hardly stressed, my time was scarce.

Even the few minutes I had scored alone with Edward the other night had come at a price. A soaking wet, ice-filled, kiss blocking price. I put my hands up to my lips as if I was trying to guess what Edward's lips felt like, what they tasted like.

I wanted to nibble on them.

Hell, I wanted to nibble on him.

I'd be lying if I said I hadn't thought about it. Frequently. I had this whole summer to do whatever I wanted…and that whatever was him.

He smelled like sunscreen and sweat and, even all these hours later, I could still remember it. If he smelled that good, I was positive his lips tasted even better. And we were so close, until the dousing, after which we both jumped up and Edward started tearing up the stairs after Garrett like his ass was on fire.

By the time I caught up to them, they were horsing around and joking like all boys do. After a few well-thrown punches, Edward came back and found me, handing me a towel in the process. We both wrapped ourselves in our own towel and sat on the deck, but we never found ourselves without an audience for the rest of the night. So not cool.

I held on to the thoughts of my body resting against Edward's, and after a super quick shower to get rid of any sand, I crawled under my sheets, closed my eyes and let my muscles just relax as I faded away.

So obviously the last thing I expected or wanted was to feel my mattress start to sink as Kate crawled on my bed.

"Not yet. Please." I burrowed down under my covers and tunneled back until my body was completely cocooned under my covers. "Oof, Kate…I mean this in the nicest way possible, but what the hell have you been eating." She weighed way more than I thought she would and while I knew she was freakishly strong, the fact that she had me completely pinned surprised me. I couldn't move.

A soft chuckling caught my ear through the covers and I thought that maybe it wasn't Kate on my bed. "Edward?" There was nuzzling now along the side of my head down toward my shoulders and I may have rolled my hips up a little bit in encouragement. Hey, my arms were pinned at my sides; my choices in movement were limited. The groan that it elicited made me shiver. That was a fun little thing to feel too, because while I thought he was incredibly hot and he made my girlie bits tingle, he had never shown anything overtly passionate.

Sure, we had this connection, or at least, I thought we did, and we almost kissed, but everything so far had been very PG-13. And I was beyond thirteen. I was two months away from being twenty-one. So maybe, just maybe I moved my hips again. Just a little bit. And maybe, just maybe he growled.

Sweet Jesus yes!

"How quickly can you come?" Now, THAT'S what I'm talking about.

I wiggled around enough to get to the point where I could roll over and move my arms to pull the covers down over my face. We were nose to nose and I wanted to breathe him in. I also wanted other things in me, but we had to start somewhere.

"Did you hear me? I said how quickly can you get ready and come find me?" Well, hell…that wasn't quite the same thing as I thought I had heard a moment ago. However, considering my current state of wet hair, no makeup and comfy clothes, I figured I needed a good thirty minutes. He sat up, straddling my body at the waist and the visual, well unf… "We don't have that much time. I…" he held his hand up to make sure I didn't say a word and he froze, head tilted towards the door.

_Knock knock knock_

"Bella?" I could hear Kate whisper from the other side and Edward hurled himself off my bed and went and crouched behind the upholstered poufy chair in the corner. The door cracked open and I closed my eyes, regulated my breathing and hoped to god that she would just go away. "Damn," she whispered pulling the door closed just as I was convinced my heart was going to beat out of my chest.

I sat up and looked for Edward, who was still crouched in the corner. I untangled myself from the covers and walked over to him, knowing my tanned legs were totally working to my advantage. "I can be ready in twenty-five."

"Twenty, and I'll totally make it worth your while."

Fucking deal! My mind started racing with the possibilities and I was almost bouncing with anticipation.

"I'll be ready in fifteen. Will you?" The look on his face spoke volumes and I shivered as I realized that I was finally going to get to spend some time with him one-on-one. And by on, I totally meant on if you catch my drift.

Reluctantly, I watched as Edward walked over to the sliding glass door and opened it. He walked over to the railing, causing me to look at him in question as he started to climb up the railing towards the third floor. He shrugged, "I don't want to take any chances and run into somebody that will find something for me to do. I'm all about you and me tonight."

"Is that how you got in? I didn't hear the door open, you must be pretty sneaky." I did a quick run through of my return to my room, thankful and a bit sad that I didn't do any naked prancing, but I knew that I hadn't heard the door open before he crawled on the bed.

"There was a pretty strong possibility that I was standing behind the curtains in the corner when you came in. I saw the three of you start to pack up from the beach, so I made my move."

"Um, that's just a little bit creepy." He looked a bit crushed at my comment until he had a chance to think about it. I was feeling a bit smug and trying to figure out a way to turn it to my advantage when my plan backfired.

"I guess that means that you don't want me to sneak in here one night then." He shrugged and started to turn back towards the balcony, but took one quick look back. Apparently my expression told him exactly how I felt about that idea and I wanted to lick that smug little smirk off of his beautiful face.

I made plans to see how he would like it if he had a taste of his own medicine. I had mad ninja skills after all. Okay, so no I didn't, and I was certain I would fall off the balcony and land on the sand below, potentially breaking something important, but I was willing to take a chance.

Fourteen and a half minutes later, I crept out of the front door of the beach house and waited. I had no idea where Edward was or where we were going or what I needed to do now, but to be honest as long as he was with me, I didn't really care what we did.

"Edward?" I whispered not so quietly into the garage.

"Right behind you."

I jumped and clutched my chest like...well like somebody had snuck up behind me and he laughed, a sound that warmed my heart and made me all fluttery inside. As much as I liked the smooth operator that had visited my room earlier, what I really liked about Edward was how just completely normal he seemed. There wasn't an ounce of pretention in his body.

"Nervous?" He reached up and smoothed a strand of hair behind my left ear, a gesture that he did on the sand the other night and an unexpected surge of energy went through my body.

"Should I be?" I totally knew the answer, but had to ask anyway in my flirty whimsy way.

"I'm hardly a threat …some might say that I'm as harmless as a ghost crab."

I spun around and glared at him. "What do you know, Cullen?"

He held up his hands in an 'I'm innocent' gesture and backed away slowly. "I admit nothing", but his smile and the gleam in his eye let me know he was completely and totally lying. The shaking of his body as laughter took over gave it away too.

"I hate you. Take me home."

"Um, we haven't gone anywhere and you know you don't hate me." I folded my arms across my chest and huffed in mock frustration as he pointed down and across the street a little bit where his car waited.

"I moved it earlier because I'm a planner."

"Confident too, I see."

"Where you are concerned, yeah...there's a bit a confidence there." We took off running and the second my feet left the driveway, I felt completely carefree, which was saying a lot since spending a summer at the beach was hardly a stress filled life. Unless, of course, that summer at the beach was with Garrett and Kate.

We got in the car and took off down the road. I still had no idea where we were going and Edward wasn't talking, well not about our excursion. We were both casually dressed and it was still relatively early, so we could have done pretty much anything.

Once we crossed the bridge though, I knew we were headed for Beaufort. I loved that little town, so full of history and quaint little places. We walked along the marina looking at the boats and watching as this little itty bitty man tried to angle his boat into his assigned slip. The man was little, the boat was big and it was probably the most obvious case of over compensation I had ever seen. Edward glanced at me and I knew he was in agreement. I mean, the dude was wearing a captain's hat. It was comical.

After leaving the marina, we walked downtown, our bodies close enough to where our pinkies and arms touched, but not holding hands. Gah, I wanted to sooo bad. I kept hoping that our pinkies would hook together or he'd just grab my hand or something, but he never moved. Finally, I took a leap of faith and took his hand in mine, giving it a little squeeze. See, I could be confident too...sorta. I didn't look directly at him, but out of the corner of my eye, I saw the smile that spread across his face, and I'm not even exaggerating a little bit when I say it could have lit up the sky.

I may have strutted.

His hand was warm and just a little bit sweaty, but not in that gross way. Totally in that cute, I want to pinch his cheeks type of way. I'm not going to specify which cheeks.

We stopped for ice cream and sat on a bench right on the water watching the sunset as we ate our cones. The tip of his cone had a small hole in it…snort…and I watched as a small drip ran down the side of his hand and towards his wrist. I started to reach for a napkin, but then had a better idea and grabbed his hand, licking the melted chocolate off his skin.

His eyes burned into mine and for a few moments, time stood still.

Worried I had overstepped, I pulled my mouth away from his hand tried to distract him. "Want to go play Putt Putt?"

"Not even a little bit."

**EPOV**

Would it be too cliché to jump up and down and say 'best date ever'? Yeah, probably. Regardless, and at chance of sounding like a complete pussy, the date was really great. I hadn't really planned anything specific for us to do, but I had done a little research, thank you Google, about places to visit near Emerald Isle.

I wanted something small, but also far enough away from the house that if one of the gang had to run out and get something, they wouldn't stumble across us accidentally. I could totally see Garrett finding us having dinner and pulling up a chair to join us. I was tired of there being four of us, or five or even six. I just wanted two – me and Bella.

As we finished our ice cream and Bella stopped blushing from licking my hand, which oddly enough was like the hottest thing I had ever experienced in my life, we both sat on the bench, at a loss of what to do. Well, I knew what I wanted to do, but I was trying to romance this girl, not just get her clothes off, though that was a priority too.

"So...if Putt Putt is out of the question, what do you want to do?" Bella asked as she licked at the tiny drop of ice cream at the corner of her mouth and my pants felt considerably tighter.

"Well, it's starting to get a bit cloudy out, but I don't want to head home just yet. I kinda like having you all to myself."

"We could go for a drive?" she suggested with a small shrug, but a devious smile was plastered to her face. "Maybe we could take the long way home along the twenty-four? See if we can find anything that seems appealing?"

Oh, I knew something that was seriously appealing. She was wearing capris and a tank top that I seriously wanted to peel off of her. I may have even spent most of my afternoon making sure, with absolute certainty, that she wasn't wearing a bra. I saw no lines.

"That sounds perfect," I replied genuinely as I grabbed her hand in mine, and we stood up from the bench and headed to the public parking lot where we had left my car. I couldn't help but wonder what sort of appealing things Bella had in mind.

The ride along the twenty-four was beautiful, with Bogue Sound on one side and the Croatan Forest on the other, and Bella's hand was firmly in mine the entire time we drove. Dark clouds were rolling in and I could sense a rainstorm was coming, but it didn't deter me. We kept on driving, Bella flipping through songs on my iPod and telling me how impressed she was with the selection of music and artists I had on there. She attempted to make fun of my Fresh Prince and DJ Jazzy Jeff collection, but I ignored her and laughed as she sang along with some of the songs.

Shortly after we passed a small town called Broad Creek, Bella had me pull off the main road when she saw a sign for a picnic spot. It had already started to rain, but it was more of a drizzle than anything. However, the moment I parked the car, it suddenly sounded like my car was being pelted with golf balls because the sky had opened up and it was raining super fucking hard.

There was even lightning crashing and thunder booming around us, but when I looked to the passenger seat, all I saw was Bella. She looked fucking beautiful.

"Would you mind if we just waited it out a bit...till the rain isn't so hard?" I questioned as Bella smiled at me, that devious yet sexy smile, before she nodded her head. Her silence was a little disconcerting, but two seconds later when she grabbed my face in her hands and began kissing me, everything made sense.

It was hands down, honest to god, the best kiss I had ever had. Her lips were so soft as she pressed them hard against mine that it took me a minute to gain a sense of clarity because that was all I could think about. Neither of us tried to use tongue, opting to go somewhat slow, though also somewhat sloppy. We moved tentatively at first and when we pulled away, we both looked at each other with a sense of uncertainty.

I began to go into paranoid mode as we just sat there and I thought that maybe that wasn't such a good thing that we had kissed. I mean, the kiss was excellent, like beyond excellent, but I could feel a hiccup about to burst out of my chest, until Bella unbuckled her seat belt and was climbing over the console between us to sit on my lap.

Where the fuck did this goddess come from?

"I couldn't wait any more for you to kiss me."

"You've been waiting?"

"Since the moment I saw you," she said with a blush as my hand went up and stroked her cheek softly, my hiccups and anxiety gone from my body. My thumb rubbed gently against the apple of her cheek as I pulled her down to me, for another kiss. This one was slower...gentler...and I couldn't stop my brain from shouting to me 'Bella is on my lap'.

Her hands threaded through my hair, working from the nape of my neck up and my hands fell from her cheek to her hips, holding her in place because I knew if she began moving just a little too much, I was in deep trouble. I was already hard as a rock and the noises she was making as she kissed me weren't helping matters. Hell, you couldn't even tell it was raining anymore since the moans in my small car were louder than the rain.

"Edward?" Bella asked as she moved back slightly, her ass looking like it was digging into my steering wheel? "Can I move this back a bit?" I nodded, willing to give her anything she needed, and watched as she reached between my legs and gripped the lever to move my car seat back. She wanted more room... Oh god, she wanted more room. Fuck, what happened to the cool guy who was super smooth in her bedroom earlier? "Is that okay?"

"Perfect," I replied with a little squeak as she moved until she was a little more comfortable in my lap. Unfortunately it wasn't that comfortable for me, since I could feel her heat through her capris. I was wearing cargo shorts and I was certain she could feel how much I wanted her.

However, I was currently going through one of those good versus evil type situations. My mind was on overload as I could picture a tiny little Edward in a red suit on one shoulder and a little Edward in a white suit on the other. Little devil Edward was telling me to let her take the lead and to do whatever she wanted me to do. Of course, little angel Edward disagreed completely and told me that if things continued to escalate I would regret it.

Bella pulled back and looked at me with concern as she put her hands flat against my chest. "Is something wrong?"

"Uh...no?" I replied, making it sound more like a question than a statement. This made Bella more suspicious and I was kicking myself for being such an idiot. "I don't want to do something you will regret."

"So you are worried I will regret this?"

"Maybe," I shrugged.

"Edward, I have never been more attracted to a guy in my life as I am with you. It's not because your gorgeous or because you have a big..." Bella stopped for a moment and ground herself against my straining cock, causing me to moan loudly in frustration. "Or because you have a big heart. I'd seriously like to get to know you more and you need to trust that I know what I am doing."

"Ok-ay," I choked out awkwardly.

"What happened to the confident guy that was in my room earlier? The one who came in through my bedroom window and who, if he played his cards right, could have had me on my bed earlier?"

"I could have?" Well shit, I didn't know that. "I not that confident with girls, I admit it. I have a bad track record and you are just so...so fucking hot and smart and cute and creative."

"Creative?"

"I wasn't snooping, I swear. I just saw your sketches in an open notebook in your room earlier. You're good."

"Thanks," she replied, her skin turning pink as she blushed all over. And I meant all over, even down her chest. "You need to relax and trust that I like you, Edward." I nodded my head eagerly and decided to just throw caution to the wind. That was what summer was about right? Letting go and having fun?

Bella's lips descended on mine again, this time we both went in for the kill and I couldn't help the groan that slipped out as our tongues touched and her fingers dug into my scalp as she tried to get closer to me. It was heaven on earth and she tasted infinitely better than I ever expected; like vanilla ice cream and sprinkles.

My hands moved up from her waist to slip just under the hem of her tank top and my fingers touched her bare skin gently. What I desperately wanted to do was yank her shirt off and touch her tits, but I wasn't _that_ confident. Bella was a little more confident than me though, because without a second thought she was pushing herself against my cock, swiveling her hips and clearly attempting to get herself off. There was no way in hell I was stopping her. Hell, I was bound and determined to help. Of course, what she whispered next to me completely caught me off guard.

"I touched myself last night thinking about you."

Yup, my dick was weeping.

I growled and pulled her lips back to mine as my hands moved further up her back, finding that just like I expected, she was braless. Bella sucked my bottom lip between hers and then began kissing down my chin to my neck, and back up to my ear, before she sucked my lobe between her teeth and nibbled. She was a succubus sent here to ruin me for all other women, I was sure of it.

"I came so hard, Edward," Bella whispered as her hands gripped my wrists and pulled them from behind her back. "You were touching me here," she explained as her hands covered mine and lifted them up her chest until I was cupping her breasts. Jesus, they were fucking spectacular and I hadn't even seen them. I was just feeling them through the fabric of her shirt. Not too big, not too small, just the perfect handful or mouthful.

A large clap of thunder sounded in the background as Bella moved herself against me again, this time harder and faster as I heard her panting a little bit. "Do you think about me?" she asked as her hands squeezed mine, effectively making me squeeze her tits.

"Oh...fuck yes, I do...all the time." I forced out without regret as Bella kissed me hard again, her tongue sliding around mine as she dropped her hands and I continued to play with her breasts, squeezing and fondling them as I listened to her moans of satisfaction.

"What do you do, baby?"

There was no way I was going back now...my cock was rubbing uncomfortably in my jeans and between her words and the way she felt and was encouraging me, I knew I was about to blow my load. Might as well go big or go home, right?

"Fuck...I jerk off thinking about you, Bella. About your hand, your mouth," she rocked her hips harder and began panting more and more as I continued. "Oh Jesus, I think about your pussy and what it would be like to fuck you."

"Oh fuck..." Bella purred as I felt myself tense and come in my shorts as she moaned loudly, finding her own release. "Edward," she whispered under her breath, as I couldn't help the urge to pull her down and kiss her soundly. She was fucking stunning as her right hand slapped against the driver's side window, the condensation and steam that had built up against it suddenly disappearing under the weight of her hand. When we separated, both of us had huge smiles on our faces.

"Next time you are thinking of me...come find me."

"I'll scale buildings for you, baby," I whispered as we both adjusted ourselves and Bella looked down at where we joined, my shorts clearly in need of a change. "No regrets?"

"Only that our clothes were on."

Once the rain subsided enough that I could safely drive, Bella and I headed back to the house, stopping at a McDonald's in Cape Carteret for some food. Of course, we did the drive through since I wasn't walking into the place with jizz filled shorts. Sure, it was uncomfortable, but Bella didn't give a shit, so neither did I.

"Kate won't take this well," Bella explained, motioning between us, as I parked the car in the same spot I had left it earlier. It was just far enough from the house that no one would see us. "She wanted a girls' summer where we had flings and partied, but..."

"But?"

"I really like you...like..."

"I adore you," I replied seriously as Bella leaned across the console and kissed me hard on the lips, pulling away quickly.

"Do you think we can maybe just keep this between us for now?"

"Sure. I mean, I don't think Garrett would give a shit, but he would probably make Kate's life hell if he knew we were spending time together and she didn't. That being said...when can I spend more time with you?"

"When can you get into my bedroom?" I looked down at my short and cringed. I had to have a shower and get cleaned up, so it would be at least half an hour. "I'll have to deal with the girls, come up with some excuse regarding where I've been."

"Perhaps you were chased by some ghost crabs and you got lost on your way back?" Bella slapped my shoulder hard and looked at me angrily.

"Not funny. You aren't allowed in my room tonight." Bella crossed her arms over her chest and pouted the cutest little pout I had ever seen. I reached my finger up and pulled her bottom lip free as I leaned in to kiss her once more.

"You can't resist me, admit it."

"Fine...you have thirty minutes."

With one more kiss, Bella jumped from the car and I watched as she dashed down street and into the driveway of the beach house. I sat in the car, grinning from ear to ear like an idiot and waiting until I saw her bedroom light go on before I made my way home.

Thankfully, everyone was sufficiently distracted playing Scrabble in the living room that no one noticed my arrival. I climbed the stairs as stealthily as I could, trying to keep quiet, before I went straight into the bathroom and stripped off my clothes and hopped into the shower. I spent five minutes cleaning up the mess from my dry hump with Bella before I had to jerk off at just the memory of it.

There was no way I could spend the night with her and not have jacked off first. The whole night was going to be hard.

Pun intended.

**If you like reading about North Carolina as much as we do, check out the story 'Strawberry Wine' by kas90. It's a really sweet story that alternates between the present day, and the past where Edward & Bella are teens falling in love one summer. Go check it out and tell the author that Coldplaywhore & Risbee sent ya.**


	7. Morning Glory EPOV Outtake

**Here's another outtake from Chapter 4. Well, the next morning really. It's still all full of fun and laughs. Enjoy.**

**We don't own twilight; we just have odd imaginations that you benefit from.**

**Song Title: (What's the story) Morning Glory by Oasis**

**EPOV**

I rolled over and stretched, surprised when my arm hit something and it wasn't the wall I usually found myself smacking with my hand. I rubbed at my eyes and looked to my left to see Bella sleeping soundly with her long brown hair covering part of her face. She looked absolutely adorable with her hands tucked under her face that I couldn't help but lean in, push some of her hair out of the way, and kiss her temple lightly as I tried to slip out of bed.

I scribbled a note on a nearby pad of paper letting her know that I was stepping out for a run and, when I heard Kate outside of Bella's bedroom, I decided to scale the side of the house again, just for privacy's sake. I left the note on the pillow I had used and slipped out of the room as quiet as I could.

As we lay in bed the night before, Bella and I discussed the situation in the house at length and decided there was no way that we could let our squabbling friends come between us. We would just have to remain as incognito as possible, and that meant keeping with my usual schedule and heading for a run. Bella theorized that if I didn't run, something I had done every morning, then people might know something was up. I guessed that she just wanted to watch me again.

Twenty minutes later as I ran down the beach, the early morning sun hitting my warm skin, I found myself wishing that I had never left the comfort of Bella's bed. She seriously had the comfiest mattress I had ever slept on and I vowed to check out the label on the mattress later to get one for myself when I got back to Winston. If I could afford it, that is. The more time I spent in the beach house, the more I realized just how expensive her father's tastes were. I don't think there was a single thing in this house bought at Target or Wal-Mart, unless it was cleaning supplies.

As my feet carried me back to the beach house, I looked up and saw Bella sitting on the deck outside her room. She was wrapped in the quilt from her bed and had a coffee in her hands. I was tempted to give her a quick wave, but then I saw Kate go out and join her, so I put my hand back down to my side and went into my usual spot to do my stretching.

I did my usual exercises, had some water, and when I was done I rested in a chair outside on the main deck and stared at the water. The waves were crashing gently against the beach and there were a few other people walking down the beach, appreciating the great weather and wonderful location.

I heard some noise from the kitchen and when I looked back, I saw Charlotte, Kate and Bella prepping their breakfast and they were all giggling. Not wanting to seem anti-social, I headed inside and was as calm as I could be, trying not to give away the budding romance between Bella and I.

"Morning ladies, have a good night?"

"Not as good as yours," Charlotte said with a wink as Kate looked at her curiously and Bella smacked Charlotte. Well, clearly Charlotte knew our secret. So much for privacy.

"Why, what did Edward do? Peter said you were feeling sick and were in bed all day yesterday," Kate said sweetly and I could sense a hint of concern in her voice. Had I been Garrett, she'd probably be wishing I was deathly ill. "Are you feeling better?"

"Much better, thanks," I replied as I looked over at Bella who was peeling a banana rather slowly before taking a huge bite of it. Holy fucking innuendo. Then…it hit me like a ton of bricks.

Bella wanted to have sex with me. I said it over and over again and let the thought ruminate through my mind. She wanted me...and I definitely wanted to have sex with her too. Hell, we fucking dry humped ourselves silly in my car just twelve hours ago and then spent time making out late last night in her room.

Sex was imminent. It was like a shuttle launch, you knew it was going to happen, but if there was bad weather or a technical malfunction, then it might have to wait, but it was _still_ gonna happen. But there was just one problem…I didn't have any protection.

I needed to get some condoms.

"Are you sure you are okay Edward?" Kate asked again as she moved around the kitchen island and went to raise her hand to my forehead. "You look a little flush."

I darted out of her way and headed towards the stairs, calling out to her as I went.

"I'm fine. I think I just need a shower and a visit to the pharmacy to get some Pepto." Yeah...Pepto, that would solve my problem.

As I stood in the shower, washing myself as quickly as I could, I plotted my plan to slip out of the house unnoticed and head to CVS to pick up what I needed. Did Bella already have some protection? Was she on the pill? Would we have sex tonight? Maybe it wouldn't even happen this month, but I needed to be ready right? I couldn't stop the endless stream of questions that continued through my mind.

However, the moment I stepped out of the shower, I realized there was no need to rush so quickly. I mean, it's not like Bella and I were going to have sex today, right? After I was dressed and had managed to grab a granola bar, I saw Bella come back into the kitchen to grab herself another coffee. I stared at her briefly, not wanting to give myself away, but when she licked her lips, I was so far gone.

"Heading to town," I called out as Garrett bounded down the stairs and stood beside me.

"Good let's go."

"No...no, you are not coming with me."

"That's what she said," he replied sarcastically as he opened the front door and motioned for me to go ahead of him. "I just need to run into CVS for some aloe...yeah, aloe. You are heading there anyways, so we might as well go together."

I closed my eyes and let out a groan of defeat as Garrett slammed the door behind him and suddenly I was stuck in my own personal hell. If there was one person I never wanted around when I was buying condoms, it was Garrett. Especially if Bella and I were trying to down play what was happening between us.

When we arrived at the store, Garrett headed towards the back of the store and I quietly went towards the section where they had the condoms. Unfortunately, the store was somewhat small and there were three elderly women in that aisle discussing incontinence and I was absolutely mortified. I just wanted to grab the first package I could and make a run for it.

That definitely wasn't going to happen as I knocked over a Depends display right into the women. I cleaned it up as best as I could and ignored the dirty looks I received from the women as I turned my attention towards the condom display and was shocked by the sheer number of options.

Hmm...her pleasure lubricated condoms, well that sounded like a good option, right? I grabbed a package and then my eye was caught by some bright packaging and something called Fire and Ice, which had dual sensations for both partners. I grabbed those too. I then grabbed two other boxes which looked appealing and tossed them into the basket I had grabbed.

I thought I was free and clear until Garrett sidled up beside me a moment and scared the shit out of me.

"I need some Magnums," he explained as he leaned over my shoulder and I let out a yell, scaring the older women. "Sorry, he's jittery when we talk about moving forward in our relationship," Garrett explained to the ladies as all their eyes grew wide and he moved to wrap his arm over my shoulder. They all stepped away as quickly as they could, and I pulled myself as far away from Garrett as I could.

"You are a complete douche."

"Why the fuck are you hiding the fact that you are buying four boxes of condoms, Edward? Sour stomach my ass...you didn't even buy any Pepto."

"They were all out," I lied.

"So you bought condoms instead? Either the exposure to the sun is making you stupid or something is up. Do you have a girl?"

"No, umm..." I stammered as my eyes darted around the store, looking for the exit. "Peter and I were going to play a practical joke on you and you just ruined it all."

"Well, by all means, buy more," Garrett said as he tossed four more boxes in my basket and then ushered me towards the cash. "You know how I love a good practical joke, but don't think I won't get you idiots back."

As I paid for my exorbitant amount of condoms and we made our way out of the store, I breathed a sigh of relief. I had gotten what I needed, even if it was dozens more than we would use all summer, and Garrett was none the wiser about the situation with Bella.

The mission was a success, albeit an embarrassing one.


	8. Summer Love

**We're back for yet another weekend update. We really appreciate all the reviews our awesome readers have given us. You have been wonderful. MaggieMay14 and smmiskimen beta this mess for us and keep it real.**

**We don't own Twilight; CPW may just love Ghost Hunters a little bit. She's partial to Jay :)**

**Song: Summer Love by Justin Timberlake**

**BPOV**

Discreet ass pats in the kitchen.

Sudden needs to run back up to the house to get a drink.

Secret pinkie touches when nobody was looking.

My life had become filled with covert signs of affection, and if I wasn't completely paranoid about getting caught, I'd almost be nauseated by the sweetness of it all.

Desperate times called for desperate measures.

That had become my motto over the past few days, as Edward and I tried to keep our 'whatever this was' under wraps. We'd become quite creative in our little rendezvous, though sometimes we were able to just stick to the basics.

Like this morning, we were steaming things up in a 295 degree, because it wasn't air-conditioned, storage closet in the garage. It smelled like melting plastic and pesticides, our clothes were sticking to everything and we were sweaty and slippery, and I was also convinced we were surrounded by a gazillion spiders. I didn't care at all.

Especially if he kept…doing...that. Edward came across as somewhat shy and sweet, but more and more I had started to think that he was more confident than he let on. You know, when it was just us, behind closed doors or in the dark. He was delicious and I was basing all this on an epic session in the front seat of his car and some closeted make-out sessions. I couldn't wait to get the boy naked.

Just the thought of it combined with our current situation made me moan/groan/make some sort of indescribable noise.

"Shhhh!" Edward laughed against my skin as I tried to stifle a giggle.

"I can't help it. That tickles!" I whisper shouted, trying to bat his fingers away and yet keep them exactly where they were. It was like the sweetest kind of torture and I felt like my nerve endings were on a constant spiral and my tummy had that feeling like I was at the top of a roller coaster.

"You need to get better at being quiet, Bella. We should definitely practice." He was so not a good influence on me as I let my eyes close and my head fell back against the wooden shelf, moving it enough to cause a few half-inflated beach balls to come raining down on our heads.

We didn't stop.

We didn't stop when we heard footsteps on the ceiling above us, or when we heard the elevator start to run. We did stop when we heard voices getting closer.

"I should probably go."

"Or you could stay here with me and see if you learned anything." He pulled my earlobe with his teeth and my knees buckled.

"Stop it. I need to go, somebody could come in here."

"You don't mean that and nobody is out there. They're all…I don't know, somewhere else." I grabbed his hand and held it still because it was getting so close where it need not go. Okay, that was a lie, but it wasn't where it needed to go _now._ It definitely needed to go there later, perhaps for an extended stay.

_Definitely_ for an extended stay.

"You're right, I don't, but you have to and I have to get out of here. We can't risk getting caught. Not yet. I'm going to go now; you follow in a few minutes. Maybe I'll offer to make an ABC store run later."

"Garrett and I just went yesterday. We don't need anything."

I closed my eyes slowly and patted his sweet little face. "So not the point, Edward." Giving him a quick kiss, I slipped out of the door before he could change my mind.

"Bella?" I jumped and pressed the door to the storage closet in the garage closed, hoping to god Kate didn't hear the 'oomph' that seemed really, really loud to my ears when I smacked Edward with the door.

Oops. I'd have to apologize to Edward for that later.

"Hi Kate!" I said maybe a bit too eagerly and smiled way too broadly, but I had never been a good liar. The trick was to make sure she didn't ask me anything I had to lie about, so it was all about the distract, distract, distract. "I was just going back inside and cool off, it got really hot in there."

Boy did it ever. I thought back to Edward's arms around my waist and his lips on my skin. I thought back to my hands in his hair and the way it felt to be pressed between the hard wall and his hard body, and yeah, I totally meant hard in that way.

Since that night in the car, and later in my bed, I had been obsessed with that boy. I couldn't get enough, which made things difficult since we had decided to keep our newfound spark on the down low. In the grand scheme of things, it was just easier that way, but there were so many times that I had just wanted to go sit close to him or grab his hand, or even give him a quick kiss as he left the room. Those were the moments when it was really hard.

Ahem. I needed to stay focused.

"What were you doing? I thought you said you were going to go work out?"

_Oh, Kate, if you only knew._

Still leaning against the door, I racked my overheated brain to think of an excuse that wouldn't arouse too much suspicion.

Arouse. I was on a roll today.

"I did. I walked a bit, but then remembered that Charlotte said there were kayaks in here and I just wanted to take a look at them to see if it was something that we could do. Maybe tomorrow?" I started walking away from the closet, hoping that Edward heard us talking out here and knew to stay inside for at least a few more minutes. Kate looked at me strangely, but followed me towards the elevator and away from the garage.

"You look funny. Your hair is crazy and you're all red and your clothes are all wrinkly." Her eyes started to narrow a bit. "What's going on, Bella?"

"Nothing. Really. I walked on the beach, which is why my hair is all crazy. You know what that breeze can do and it's humid, so it's frizzy. Really. It's been like this all summer; I just try and stay on top of it. I haven't been back inside to fix it yet. Plus I think a spider may have landed on me when I was in there. That was what made the crashing noise."

I'd have to remind Edward to nix the hair tugging…well, at least during the daytime.

"I didn't hear anything. Are you sure you're ok? Have you been drinking? How many fingers am I holding up? Can you count backwards from a hundred?"

"Seriously, Kate. I'm not drunk, I'm just overheated." I could almost hear Edward strut around inside and I stuck my tongue out before I could stop myself. "Spider web." I said, spitting and pretending like I was going to cough up a hairball. Yup, I definitely heard him laughing. Ass.

I needed to get Kate away from there, and soon because she was getting too close. Way too close.

"Really, I'm fine. It was just way hot in that storage shed." I took a big risk, "want to check it out? Seriously, in two minutes, you'll be completely sticky." I was hoping that she'd refuse because she wasn't one to get dirty, but I may have said that a bit loudly so if she did want to go in, Edward could maybe try and hide.

"Eww, no. You look like a hot mess. Sorry, I'm just a little irritated. I think something may be going on between Peter and Charlotte, and well, that would just mess everything up. This summer was supposed to be about us, not about us and," she sneered, "them. I just wanted some time with my friends when we weren't stressing about classes or exams. When I could just relax and not worry about what that woman is doing with my father. When I could just…I don't know. Things just aren't the way I had planned, ya know?" She sighed and her shoulders slumped. If I hadn't been terrified of discovery, I would have felt a little bit sorry for her.

When I saw the handle on the door start to turn, I started talking. Loudly. "KATE. WE ARE HERE!" The handle stopped, thank god.

"Um, I know we are here and why are you yelling?"

"Sorry, I think I've still got some water in my ear from swimming this morning."

"I thought you went for a walk?"

"Oh, yeah." Damn. I needed to start keeping a list of my excuses. "Well, its crazy humid out there so it must have just accumulated." I could feel the walls start to close in and it was time to change the subject. Completely. "You know, I'm suddenly really thirsty."

I didn't address the Charlotte-Peter thing because, while I didn't know if anything had happened, one, I wasn't a liar, and two, who was I to stand in their way. Besides, they'd be absolutely precious together in an adorkable sort of way. I mean, he has an I Love Corn shirt and she's a vegan. See, made for each other.

Add to that the fact that I wasn't completely certain that Charlotte hadn't seen Edward sneak out of my room this morning and I wasn't about to stir the pot. I hadn't had a chance to talk to her yet to confirm anything, but she did seem a bit giggly this morning over her coffee and the smile on her face was a little more sinister than what I was used to from her. I absolutely needed to keep an eye on her.

**EPOV**

"Okay, so are we all ready to go?" Charlotte called out from the living room on Saturday night as I finished pulling on my sneakers and then headed downstairs. Bella was about to do the same, so we both looked around and took a moment to lock lips before we started the night which we were sure would be torture.

After all, spending all night together outside in the dark and being unable to touch was torture to me and with the recent increase in activity, and sexual frustration, between Bella and I, I knew she would feel the same way.

When we pulled apart, I let Bella go first and I took a nice long look at her ass in her capri's and couldn't help but notice just the outline of her thong beneath it. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough time to go rub one out, so I was stuck. At least I was until Kate appeared at the bottom of the stairs and suddenly I wasn't so hard anymore.

"Will you two hurry it up? I want to get this evening over as quickly as possible." Kate stormed away and Bella looked over her shoulder and gave me a sympathetic look.

"A few hours and we will be back here and alone," I whispered to her as she nodded her head and we made our way into the living room where Charlotte was standing in a pair of jeans and a tight fitting t-shirt with a picture of Slimer from _Ghost Busters_ on it. I looked at Bella and gave her a 'What the fuck?' kind of glare, but she just smiled sweetly at me.

"Wonderful, the crew is all here," Charlotte declared, clearly taking charge of the evening's events. "I'm glad to see everyone dressed comfortably, like I had asked. Now, just so you know, I appreciate you guys all agreeing to come with me." I groaned and looked at Peter. He knew about Bella and I, because well we both needed someone to talk to, and he had sorta kinda blackmailed me into coming on this excursion. I wanted to stay here and fake sick and have Bella stay as my nursemaid.

Mmm…Bella as a nurse.

Regardless, Peter wouldn't relent though and here I was, very confused and wondering what the fuck Charlotte had in her hands.

"Okay, I'm just gonna come right out and ask…what in the heck are we doing?" Garrett asked as he stared at Charlotte with almost as much confusion as me. "Because that thing in your hands looks like a stud finder and I doubt you're taking us to build houses for Habitat in the dark. You're weird…but you're not that weird."

"We're going on the Beaufort Ghost Walk."

"I retract that last sentence," Garrett replied as I stifled a laugh and we both were interrupted by Peter.

"This is going to be fun, now shut the fuck up and listen to the girl." Way to play it cool there, Peter. No one will ever catch on that you like Charlotte, especially now that she is blushing as she stares at you.

"Alright, I promise that this will be fun. We're gonna drive down to Beaufort and I signed us up for a Ghost Walk that starts at ten. It's just us six, nice and private with the instructor, and it will be scary too!" Charlotte shoved a bunch of weird looking gadgets into a nearby backpack and then ushered us all out of the house. Since we all couldn't fit in one car, we decided to take two, but of course, Kate insisted on a boy's car and a girls car. I was really starting to dislike her more and more.

When we got to the gazebo at Graydon Paul Park, which was located right on the water, a girl who couldn't have been older than twenty was sitting there waiting for us. "You must be Charlotte," she said sweetly as she extended her hand out and she took it easily.

"Thanks so much for doing this private tour for us, Chelsea." The girls bantered back and forth for a moment as they discussed a bit of the tour, but I couldn't pay attention since I was busy getting elbowed in the gut by Garrett.

"Chelsea is fucking hot, man." I couldn't help but notice Kate glaring at him from the corner of my eye. This couldn't turn out well.

"Stop it, idiot," I urged as Garrett looked at in frustration. "Just for tonight ignore the hot girl okay? You can come back tomorrow and tell her your story about inventing Twitter or whatever the fuck it is that seems to get you laid…"

"The Twitter story doesn't work as well as the one I said about my family owning Cinnabon. I got a really awesome bj out of that lie." I rolled my eyes at Garrett and couldn't believe he had the nerve to be such a complete and utter tool. It was seriously like he had lost most of his brain cells since we hit the beach. Garrett was usually obsessed with women, but he was super smart and took his academics seriously. Lately, he was just a douchebag.

"Okay, new plan. How about you just shut the fuck up tonight and tag along on a walk?"

"What has you in such a shit mood?"

"You seem to have lost all respect for women. It's mind boggling how much you have changed since we left Wake."

"Fine…I was just trying to enjoy my summer, but for tonight I will be on my best behavior for you, _Dad_." Garrett stormed away and went to hang out with Peter as Chelsea and Charlotte proceeded to give us an overview on what we were doing. It seemed Charlotte had given Chelsea a hefty tip and we would be going into one of the haunted houses on the tour that was abandoned. Oh boy!

We walked for about five minutes down Front Street, with Chelsea leading the way and telling us all about the haunted history in Beaufort. Apparently the most haunted place in town was The Hammock House, which was Blackbeard's house, but we would be seeing that near the end of the tour. We went to a few small locations first and sure enough, Charlotte was beyond excited about every little thing Chelsea explained to her.

Peter was constantly taking pictures, no doubt at Charlotte's insistence, but he seemed just as thrilled as she did. As Chelsea was explaining about something called orbs and misplaced energy, I stood off to the back of the group and grab's Bella's hand in mine. When she moved closed, our friends all actually paying attention, I couldn't help the urge I had to kiss her. Unfortunately I couldn't do that, so I leaned in and whispered in her ear instead.

"I miss touching you." I knew Bella was blushing even though it was dark outside, and I stroked the back of her palm with my fingers. "I can't wait to touch you…everywhere."

"Holy shit, did you see that?" Kate shouted as Bella and I quickly separated and grew anxious.

"Nope, didn't see anything," I claimed nervously as my eyes darted over to Bella's.

"Nothing too exciting going on here."

"What?" Kate questioned as we all looked at her. "No, up in the window I swear to god I saw a figure standing there."

"It's very possible, Kate," Chelsea began to explain. "We've had hundreds of reports of people seeing a woman of the night, or a wench in that window. Can you tell me what you saw?"

"She looked about medium build, long hair and wearing a big dress sorta like in the south or something." Chelsea just smiled in exchange and began to explain in depth about how the house was once used as basically a bordello and several women had been killed by clients there back in the 1700's.

As we walked on to the next location, Bella and I both breathed a sigh of relief. At least we had dodged the bullet once more. Too bad it was getting increasingly difficult to stay away from her. The more time we spent together, the more I longed for her.

Over the next hour we visited several equally creepy sites including a cemetery where Chelsea told us the story about a girl who was buried in a rum keg and suddenly Garrett, who had been leaning against the rails of the cemetery, screamed out.

"What the mother fuck," he shouted as he clutched his stomach and Charlotte pulled out her flashlight and shone it at his face. "I don't know which one of you assholes thinks this is funny, but stop it."

"Stop what?" I asked as Garrett pulled up the hem of his shirt and sure enough, there were a bunch of scratch marks against his abdomen. "Jesus, when did you get those?"

"Just now, idiot," he explained as Charlotte shone the light on his stomach and the girls all gasped at the marks he had. They were literally getting redder the longer we looked at them. "I felt cold all of a sudden as Chelsea was telling us about the girl and then I felt a huge stab of pain. It burns like a son of a bitch."

"Garrett, would you be surprised to know you aren't the first person to have this happen to them?" Garrett shook his head as Chelsea went on to explain what she believed happened. "You are probably the twentieth person in the history of the ghost walk to be scratched. The story goes that the little girl who is buried in the rum keg reached through the railing and scratches people; mostly men. It's most likely that she was buried alive by men and that is why she holds such animosity towards them."

"Think you can warn a guy next time?" Garrett joked as he pulled down his shirt and Chelsea gave him a sweet smile.

"Well, where's the fun in that?"

"I guess not," Garrett grumbled as we finished up at the cemetery and Chelsea finally led us over to The Hammock House.

When we arrived, I stood at the back again and tried to get Bella's attention, but Charlotte had her completely monopolized. Peter continued snapping photos and I couldn't help but notice that Kate and Garrett were talking quietly to one another and he was showing her his scars. What the hell was going on here?

"So…this is Edward Teach's former house. Residents also call it Blackbeard's house."

"Wait…his name was Edward Teach?" Bella suddenly asked as Chelsea nodded her head and Bella's face broke out into a grin. "His name is Edward and he wants to teach when he graduates. Just an odd coincidence I suppose."

"Uh…very odd," said Chelsea as she smiled in my direction and went back on to explaining that when it's a full moon outside, people often claimed that they could hear the screams of Blackbeard's wife. "I've arranged for us to spend a bit of extra time exploring the house, so come on."

We all followed Chelsea, and Charlotte was literally bouncing up and down she was so excited. She reached into her magical little backpack and handed us each a tool. "Let's spilt up, a boy and a girl per group." A smile crossed my face as Charlotte paired us up with the person we were standing beside, which meant I was with Bella and Charlotte was with Peter. Neither Garrett nor Kate looked too impressed, but Chelsea volunteered to go exploring with them. Charlotte handed us each a device and we made our way around the house to the back door, Chelsea unlocking it for us as we went in.

"Do not touch or disturb anything. The Town of Beaufort allows us to use this historical house for our tours, but we rarely get to explore inside." Charlotte winked at Bella and I and then she told us to use the recorder and try and talk to the spirits before she ushered us into the living room.

Less than thirty seconds later, Bella and I were completely alone and suddenly I had her pressed up against the wall as my fingers went up the back of her shirt, desperate to touch her. "Fuck, it has been so hard to be this close to you," I forced out hurriedly as Bella's lips began sucking roughly on my neck and I couldn't find it in me to care that she would leave a mark.

"I think Charlotte is the devil. She's been trying to keep us apart tonight," Bella explained before her hands went into my hair and our tongues pressed into the others mouth, moving around rapidly and roughly as we both fought to hold back our moans.

"I need to be with you tonight," I confessed as my hand, without any previous thought process, slipped between her legs and cupped her heated sex. Jesus fuck…warm was an understatement regarding what I found between her legs. I rubbed forcefully with my palm as my fingers stroked her on the outside of her pants and Bella's head fell against my shoulder as she panted for me. I hadn't initially meant that I wanted to fuck her tonight, but I desperately wanted to sleep in the bed with her.

"You are so beautiful, I can't wait to make you mine and not hide us." I was urged on by the fact that Bella hadn't pushed me away and was growing increasingly excited, so I did what any hot blooded man would do, I began to undo her pants with my free hand, eager to actually touch and feel how wet she was for me. Unfortunately, I only got the button released when Bella suddenly screamed out.

"Holy shit…there are people out there watching us," she yelled as she batted my hand away and Kate, Garrett and Chelsea suddenly appeared in the room, looking at us curiously. "I swear to god I saw three men outside the window staring at Edward and me."

"Are you sure?" I asked, trying to be supportive as Bella shockingly grabbed my hand and stayed close to my side.

"I'm positive. They looked like they were wearing Civil War Army clothes or something, and when I looked up from…from the thing," she said, trying to hide the fact that I was about to try and get her off in a haunted house. "I saw them standing there at the window."

"You looked up from what thing?" Kate asked with her head cocked to the side, looking at Edward and I oddly. However, Charlotte walked in with Peter, both of them looking rather disheveled themselves as Bella explained what had happened. We were safe for a moment from Kate's inquisitive mind.

"Well, let's listen to your recording. Maybe you caught something on there," Charlotte suggested as she tried to take the recorder out of Bella's hand, but she was clutching it tightly.

"No…I didn't even turn it on."

"I did when I handed it to you. Now, hand it over." Charlotte pried the recorder out of her hand and Bella and I both looked mortified and she buried her face into my shoulder as Charlotte rewound the tape briefly and then we heard it.

"_You are so beautiful, I can't wait to make you mine and not hide us." _My voice declared on the audio recording as you could hear our panting and moaning and then Bella scream. "Well, that was fun," I stated, trying to put some humor into the situation.

"What the fuck was that? Are you guys fucking?" Kate screeched as her eyes flitted between Bella and I. Rather than stand back and let Bella deal with her friend on her own, I wrapped my arm around her shoulder and held her against me.

"Jesus Kate, could you be more blunt? I had been making out with Edward, cause he's my boyfriend." Well shit…there's one way to label me as her boyfriend. Not that I was complaining; I was actually overjoyed.

"Peter and I had sex," Charlotte suddenly blurted out as everyone looked kinda mortified, including Peter. "Sorry. That was totally the wrong time huh?"

"Is everyone here having sex but me," Kate shouted as she eyed us all up with disgust. "This was supposed to be a fun summer and everyone but me is getting laid. I just wanted to spend time with my friends and relax, drink a little and hit some bars. Now I feel like the spinster who should be going to the SPCA to check out getting a cat or ten."

Bella went over and hugged her friend sweetly as Charlotte followed suit; the two girls whispering something that seemed to calm her down. However, Garrett took that moment to remind us just how big of an idiot he truly was.

"Maybe if you weren't such a bitch, I'd fuck you," he stated, trying to be funny, but as Kate broke loose of her friends and charged at him, I couldn't find it in me to hold her back. He deserved it this time.

**CPW has a little something something in the TwiGirlsNextDoor Schools Out For Summer Contest, so you should check it out.**


	9. Thriller PPOV Outtake

**We're back for yet another weekend update. We really appreciate all the reviews our awesome readers have given us. You have been wonderful. MaggieMay14 and smmiskimen beta this mess for us and keep it real.**

**We don't own Twilight; as a coping mechanism, Risbee has developed an obsession with Top Gear and wishes desperately that she was British.  
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**Song: Thriller by Michael Jackson  
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Chapter 5

PPOV Outtake

I was head over fucking heels in love. She was quirky, beautiful, environmentally friendly and so fucking sexy I couldn't think straight when she was within five feet of me. I had grand plans of romancing her, sweeping her off feet, taking her back to Iowa to meet my entire family and proposing to her in a field of corn. She would totally love it. That was the kind of girl that Charlotte was.

She totally cemented my feelings for her when she told me she wanted to organize all of us to go on a Ghost Walk in Beaufort and then proceeded to come down the stairs later that night with a Ghost Busters t-shirt on.

I was fucked.

She had me wrapped around her finger from the word go. I followed her; made sure the boys listened and didn't ruin the night, and was constantly taking pictures of anything and everything since Charlotte seemed to believe that you never knew when you would see a ghost.

Once we made it inside of Blackbeard's house, we all split up. Thank the fucking gods. Not that I didn't like my friends, but Char's tight shirt had been teasing me all night. I desperately needed to touch her and lord knows we had to be discreet about the whole deal.

So, while everyone else coupled off, I ushered Charlotte up the stairs under the guise of exploring the haunted house.

"There are so many legends associated with this house," Charlotte began as we walked slowly down the hallway and I peeked inside one of the rooms. It was creepy, that was for sure, but it didn't make my desire for Charlotte any less severe. We could totally do it in a haunted house. Hell, now that I thought about it that was going on my bucket list. "You know they say that three Union officers went to inspect the house back in 1862 and were never seen again, until some workmen found their remains in 1915 while doing construction."

"Interesting," I replied as I ushered Charlotte into the next room, which was equally as disturbing and wrapped my arms around her waist. I buried my face into her neck and began kissing her softly as she moaned quietly for me.

"Peter, we shouldn't be doing this...oh, fuck," she cursed as my hands worked their way up her stomach, pushing her shirt up to reveal her silky white bra.

"There is no Peter, only Zuul," I laughed as Charlotte leaned her head back against my shoulder and I began to push the cups of her bra down so my fingers could tease her hard nipples.

"Ugh...no Ghostbusters jokes," she urged as she swiftly turned around in my arms and began kissing me furiously. Her fingers threaded through my hair as she pushed us backwards towards the wall, my body hitting it with a thump as I reached out and began to unbutton her jeans.

"Have you been a good girl?" I asked, trying to sound seductive and in control, but I couldn't hold back the laugh that came out.

"Very good," Charlotte replied as she encouraged me to pull her jeans down and I was floored to see she had gone commando.

"Very good, indeed. Did you have something planned for this evening?" I asked as my hand went down to cup her ass as I pulled her against me, knowing full well she could feel how hard I was for her.

"Oh, I might have wanted to score some alone time with the sexiest man in North Carolina," Charlotte said sweetly as she leaned in and kissed me full on the lips. Her hands then began undoing my belt and she had just reached the zipper of my jeans as we heard a loud commotion from downstairs.

"Holy shit…there are people out there watching us," Bella yelled as several other footsteps began moving towards the room she was in. "I swear to god I saw three men outside the window staring at Edward and me."

Charlotte and I glanced at each other knowingly, and a little disappointed, and quickly pulled our clothes back on and made our way down the stairs, finding everyone together in the living room area discussing what had gone down. From what we could gather Bella thought she had seen men outside of the window watching her.

"Well, let's listen to your recording. Maybe you caught something on there," Charlotte suggested, which I thought was a great idea, but Bella didn't want to let go of it. Something was definitely up, and it wasn't my cock, sadly.

"No…I didn't even turn it on," Bella explained as Charlotte looked at me curiously before looking back at Bella.

"I did when I handed it to you. Now, hand it over." Charlotte yanked the recorder out of Bella's hand and Bella and Edward both looked mortified as Charlotte set up the tape so we could listen.

"_You are so beautiful, I can't wait to make you mine and not hide us." _Edward's voice stated on the recorder and we could all hear was definite moaning and then Bella's scream.

"Well, that was fun," Edward said with a chuckle. Good luck deflecting this shit storm, I thought to myself as I gave Edward a sympathetic glance.

"What the fuck was that? Are you guys fucking?" Kate shouted, clearly upset. And the girl had to wonder why the fuck we were hiding these relationships, if that was what they were, from her.

"Jesus Kate, could you be more blunt? I had been making out with Edward, cause he's my boyfriend." I saw a huge smile cross Edward's face and I was actually happy for the guy. He finally had a girlfriend who I liked. That was a big step forward for him.

"Peter and I had sex," Charlotte shouted as my mouth hung open in surprise. "Sorry. That was totally the wrong time huh?"

Kate continued rambling on how about she wasn't getting laid and Bella and Charlotte tried to console her, to no avail. Thankfully, that was the end of the drama for the night. Well, aside for Garrett's usual crude comments. However, it was kind of worth it to be able to hold Charlotte's hand as we headed back to the parking lot to drive back to the house. And then to climb into her bed that night and fuck her speechless until we were both exhausted.

Yes, definitely worth it.


	10. Hot Fun in the Summertime

**Miss us? Thanks again to MaggieMay14 and smmiskimen who deal with this madness. **

**We don't own Twilight; Risbee owns a new haircut and CPW has sore feet. That's all we got.  
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**Song: Hot Fun in the Summertime by Sly & The Family Stone  
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**BPOV**

If there was one thing that was predictable about beach weather, it was that it was unpredictable. Edward and I had planned to do the touristy thing; going to Fort Macon, visiting some piers, just getting away from the house for a bit, but Mother Nature had other plans. One look at the sky to the west and there was no question about it, it was a good day to visit the aquarium. Three hours later and we were still there. We had seen everything there was to see, and while it was more interesting than I thought it would be, admittedly I was getting a bit bored. Plus, I had a few things on my mind.

"Kate is acting funny."

"That's nice." Edward was staring moonstruck at a giant massive toothy shark as it slowly swam past us. Again. I mean, the exhibit it was in was in a circle, so it had very few options, but still. At least start swimming counterclockwise, change depths or something. I was switching back and forth between being hypnotized and claustrophobic. I needed to get outside in a bad way so I grabbed Edward's hand and pulled slightly, suggesting that maybe we move closer to the exit to see if it was still raining or maybe over to the otters, because at least they were cute and funny, even if they would gnaw your hand off at the first chance they got. Yeah, I knew random shit about otters.

Had I mentioned that we had been here for three hours already?

Still, Edward was standing so close to the glass that his nose was practically smooched flat and his breath was starting to fog up the surface. Sighing, I went and sat on one of the benches behind him and kept talking. Eventually he had to blink or move or something and maybe then I'd get his attention. Who knew the guy had such a thing for aquatic life. I bet he loved the movie Splash, or maybe he had shark fetish like Chandler from Friends. Nah, that would just be too fucked up for my Edward.

"Something is off with her and more than usual. I can't quite figure out what it is, but she hasn't been acting like herself. I'm suspicious."

He was still entranced by the exhibit, so I stood up, moved closer and nudged him with my hip. "Yeah, I think that's a great idea, Bella." He nodded and then moved over a bit to get a better view of whatever had caught his attention. It clearly wasn't me though.

So this was how it was going to be, huh? Eh, he was too cute to get mad at, so I just kept talking. If it got much worse, I could always go accidentally on purpose brush my boobs against him since he did seem rather fond of them. All the sneaking around we did for those four whole days really upped my manipulation skills. "Who knows? I'll talk to Charlotte about it later today. I'm just getting this vibe…"

"I'm sorry, what?"

And what do you know…suddenly, Edward was paying attention to me. Of course, he WOULD hear that word of all words, but maybe that had something to do with me letting slip that I had a few here with me. See…manipulation.

I mean, I had to admit that there was a little bit of a thrill in all the covertness and sneaking around but it was so much better this way than having to worry about who might be walking around the corner.

The past few days had been epic. Beyond epic. They were stupendous. Magnificent. The best. Ever!

All because of Edward.

We were like magnets, drawn to each other, and I couldn't help but be happy when I was around him. I held his hand whenever I wanted – which was all the time. I gave him little kisses whenever I wanted – which was all the time. I squeezed his cute little rear whenever I wanted – which, again, was all the time.

But it wasn't just his hotness that attracted me; Edward was probably the most genuine, the nicest and the kindest person that I had ever met. I hadn't asked directly, but I bet he had a rainbow permanently arched above his house growing up.

Things were exactly how I wanted them to be.

Of course, we had to contend with the death glares from Kate whenever she saw us together, but it was completely worth it. We just made sure never to leave the other alone with her for more than a few minutes and always make sure that we never turned our back to her. It honestly didn't even phase me though, because Kate and her five stages of grief or whatever it was that was making her act the way she had been, couldn't compete with my complete and utter euphoria.

Have I mentioned that I was happy? Because I was.

Especially now, with Edward's arms wrapped around me, because while he was still staring at the effin' shark, at least he realized that I was standing here with him. Just the contact made me feel better and I absolutely appreciated these quiet moments with him. They were calming and peaceful and just ours, which was hard to come by in a house with six people.

Every night, Edward would sleep in my room. We still hadn't done the nitty gritty because, well, it had only been a week or two, but it was coming. Then, if things go as planned, so would we.

Anyway, he'd wake me up with soft, sweet kisses before he left, allowing me time to start moving at my own speed. By the time I was fully awake and had coffee in hand, he was back from his run and in the shower. Then we'd meet on my balcony and figure out what we were going to do for the day. I was still warm and sleepy and he was warm from the sun on his shoulders and he smelled like soap. He'd nuzzle my neck with his nose and I'd lean into him like he was the most comfy pile of man pillows ever. Awesome.

Kate only threw water balloons at us once.

"Did you hear anything I said earlier? About Kate?"

Edward grinned that silly little grin and nodded, but when I looked at him and arched my eyebrow, he slowly converted that nod into a shake and his grin became a little less silly and a little more sheepish. Kissing him on the nose, I gave a quick recap and then waited for his thoughts.

"What makes you say that? I haven't noticed anything different. She still seems bitchy more often than not, though I'm sure Garrett is happy that he's not her main focus these days."

"I don't know. I went to go get my coffee and she handed me a spoon."

"A spoon? Woah, that's huge!" Edward looked amused and I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing because it was ridiculous, but still. I was serious and worried about my friend.

"Yes, a spoon. And yes, it was huge. Yesterday, she made decaf and then hid the regular stuff. Did you not notice my tears? And she texted me a picture of the Burger King king when she knows that shit terrifies me. And then…" I signaled for Edward to move closer because I really didn't want anybody to hear what I was about to say. "She created a Celine Dion station on Pandora." I looked around, scanning the people around us on the off chance that Charlotte and Peter had suddenly apparated beside us. "You have no way of knowing this, but Charlotte is a diehard Celine fan and when she heard the first three notes of 'My Heart Will Go On' she started crying and sobbing about Jack and Rose. Then she started doing her imitation of her 'All By Myself' performance, complete with chest banging. Fourteen times yesterday I had to endure that madness. I may never recover. Hold me." I collapsed into his arms over-dramatically and shuddered just thinking about it.

"NO!"

"I know, right? That was just way wrong." I started going on and on about how horrible Kate had been acting when I realized that maybe Edward was patronizing me just a little bit. He did look more amused than horrified. "You know what, never mind. I obviously know her better than you, so of course these things are going to stick out, but what I was going to say is that, I'm worried about her today. Something is different about the way she's acting. She's all smiles and kindness and I'm honestly a little frightened. She's either had too much sun and it has started to affect her mentally, or she's planning something and trying to lull me into a false sense of security."

What I needed to do was try and get Charlotte away from Peter and alone for a couple of minutes to see if she'd noticed anything different. "Maybe I just need to sit her down and let her scream at me for a bit. After all, Charlotte and I have kind of abandoned her and our plans for the summer. She has had a tough time with her parental situation and I just want to make sure that she's okay. It's worth the verbal beat down."

"Do it tomorrow. Give her one more day to cool off, get over it, and come to terms with it, whatever she needs to do, and tomorrow, if she's not cool with it, then we sit her down and figure out how we can get through the rest of the summer. But for now, I don't want to think about Kate or Garrett or fighting or anything. In fact, I think we should look at the sharks again."

I giggled a little bit because it was just so out of the blue and random and when I looked at him, I couldn't help but smile. The expression on his face was priceless; he looked like Ralphy from 'A Christmas Story' when he was asking for the Red Rider BB Gun. So hopeful and excited. How could I resist?

"Do you have any idea how cute you are?" I said as I kissed the tip of his nose. "I'm sorry to be such a downer this morning, but I just know she's been through a lot and I'm worried that she's taking this personally."

"I honestly think she'll be fine when she gets a chance to calm down. She reminds me a lot of my friend Emmett's girlfriend, Rosalie. Sometimes it's better to give her some space than try and talk to her. After a few days, the situation has diffused itself and everything is back to normal," Edward explained calmly as he tightened his grip around me. "There are some people in this world that just aren't worth arguing with. Not to say that they aren't worth it, because obviously you, Kate and Charlotte have a great friendship, but she just seems like she's one to get set in her ways and she has to be the one to make the decision to change her mind. She's not easily convinced and the more you push, the more she'll push back. I say just let her come to terms with her disappointment or resentment or jealousy,"

I stopped him there, arching my eyebrow, "Jealousy? You think she has a thing for you?"

"You certainly have a thing for me, why wouldn't she? I mean, few women have been able to resist my charms and attention." He waggled his eyebrows and I leaned on his shoulder, sighing in contentment. A few weeks after we met and he already knows how to calm me down. Either I'm extremely readable or he's extremely insightful or maybe we just work together well. Whatever it was, it was good.

"Oh wait! I forgot, you promised we could go back to the giant crab and take pictures! I want to do that! Come on!" Edward had puppy dog energy. I'd noticed that about him. When we weren't cuddling with each other, he was bouncing around, constantly in motion. Running, playing football on the beach. The boy couldn't stay still.

"Breathe! We have all summer."

I pushed him down on the bench I had been sitting on earlier and his hand started to skim along the hem of my t-shirt, and I straddled him on the bench, ignoring the looks from the people around us and the pain that I felt in my knees because sometimes you had to suffer a bit to get what you wanted.

"We have been here long enough. Let's go get lunch at Big Oak. They have those shrimp burgers that you wanted the other day." More and more I was starting to get excited about the idea and I started going through my list of things I'd seen but not been able to do since getting here. "Oh, and we should definitely go to Water Boggan! They have Go-Carts. Of course, it's not as awesome as Jungleland, but they've closed down. And you know, we never did play Putt-Putt." I grinned back at him because putt putt had become one of our little jokes.

"Can we get ice cream first?" He smirked and it made me tingly.

"Why? Want me to suck on you again?" I shot him my most innocent look and did an internal fist pump when he started coughing and choking and I _think_ he may have started to blush a little bit. And then there were the hiccups.

Gah, he was just the cutest thing ever.

"Do you know how much I like you, Edward Cullen?" I asked as I somehow disentangled myself from his lap and helped him up off the bench. And no, I did not miss the fact that he had to do some adjusting.

"Enough to show me your boobs?" he asked, reaching for them as I shuffled back out of his way.

"You play your cards right and I may even let you touch one. Now, let's get out of here. I feel like playing with your balls...I mean some balls."

**EPOV**

The date was nothing short of fun in my opinion, and from the look on Bella's face I would say she agreed. Sure, I may have annoyed her a little bit at the aquarium, but she kicked my ass at putt-putt, so I think that more than made up for it.

However, the highlight of the night for me was that her hand was currently tightly entwined with mine as we made our way up the stairs and into her bedroom. Sure, it wasn't the first time I had been in there, because it was a nightly occurrence these days, but tonight it just seemed like we were determined for more...and I desperately wanted more.

When we came in I noticed that Peter's car was gone, so I quickly assumed that he and Charlotte were out, but I couldn't make any assumptions as to where Kate or Garrett were. Well, Kate I figured was moping somewhere or calling her dad to bitch while Garrett was probably trying to track down someone stupid enough to sleep with him. That was their prerogative though.

All I was concerned about right then was that Bella and I were about to have ourselves a little alone time. This time, I was bound and determined to make the most of it too. Sure, it had been a few days since the whole ghost walk incident, but Kate hadn't taken the news of our dating, or Peter and Charlotte's for that matter, very well.

Even though Bella and I had managed time alone together, Kate just always seemed on the periphery of everything, scowling and looking at us like we had three heads or something. Now that Kate was nowhere to be found, I was going to enjoy myself. In fact, the moment we passed through the door, I practically lunged at Bella, desperate to feel her lips against mine again. "For the record, I hate Kate."

"Oh come on, Kate is great."

"Isn't that a song?" I asked curiously as I grabbed the hem of Bella's shirt without any hesitance and pulled it from her before I yanked mine off as well. She still had on a tank top and bra underneath, sadly.

"Yeah, by the Bouncing Souls. I like to listen to them sometimes when I paint."

"That's nice...less talking, more touching," I urged as Bella walked backwards and fell onto her bed, giggling happily as I stalked towards her. She sat up on the edge and I leaned down to cup her face and sucked her bottom lip into my mouth. "You are so delicious."

I was just about to push her back down and crawl over her, but Bella had other ideas. Her fingers reached up and began to fumble with my belt, pulling it free with a mischievous look on her face. I couldn't get past the fact that Bella was probably about to either give me a hand job or a blow job, and to be brutally honest, both sounded fucking fantastic.

"Baby?" I questioned stupidly as Bella just looked up at me with her big brown eyes and nodded as she shoved my shorts out of the way. I suddenly felt like a complete idiot standing there in my happy face boxer shorts as Bella let out a small snort and then looked up at me with a face that said 'really?' "Oh come on, cut a guy some slack. Anyways, what's underneath is very happy right now."

Bella let out a small laugh before she tugged my boxers down and was left sitting in front of my very aroused dick. She let out a small moan of appreciation before her soft hand wrapped around my length, stroking me as I began moaning loudly. It had been a while since anyone other than me had their hand wrapped around my cock and to say I was a little excited was an understatement.

I lolled my head back and stared at the ceiling briefly, trying to maintain some composure, but when I looked back down, Bella was slipping the head of my cock between her lips and I literally growled at the sight. Jesus fuck, it felt and looked so damn good – like hot fucking heaven. Her hand was gripped around the base of my shaft and her mouth was moving slowly, teasing me as she wrapped her tongue around my length.

"Holy shit," I groaned a moment later as I felt Bella's teeth scrape the underside of my cock.

Unable to stand there with my hands clenched at my sides any longer, I used one hand to thread through Bella's hair, never once pushing her down onto my cock, though I was tempted. The other hand reached down and slipped through the top of her tank top, past the fabric of her bra, to grope her bare breast. As my fingers teased her nipple, rolling and pinching it, Bella began to moan around my aching dick, making me throb.

I began thinking about taking the initiative and pulling Bella away so that I could lavish some attention on her, and also prolong everything, since if she kept going I wouldn't last long, but Bella clearly had other ideas. She pulled me out of her mouth and began licking and sucking just the tip of my cock and as I moved my hand from her hair to push the straps of her shirt and bra down, Bella suddenly sucked me deeper into her mouth.

Sweet Jesus...is that the back of her throat?

I looked down once more and I was completely done for. Bella was eagerly taking me into her mouth, with one hand still clutching me tightly and the other was pulling her shirt down. Seeing her erect and very pink nipple between her own fingers literally killed me and without much warning I was suddenly coming in her mouth.

"Oh Jesus...fucking shit, I am so sorry, Bella," I choked out as Bella looked up at me through her lashes and pulled my softening cock out of her mouth. Then she licked her lips and I had to admit she looked very fucking pleased with herself. I think I fell in love with her right there.

"Don't apologize, Edward," Bella said sweetly as she stood up from the bed and began kissing her way up my chest. "I thoroughly enjoyed that."

"Oh, did you now?" I asked as my hands ghosted slowly up her bare sides and my hands began to cup her breasts. Yup, there was definitely a little more than a handful. I kissed her lips softly as my thumbs traced over her highly aroused nipples and just as I was about to kiss my way down her neck to her breasts and give them some attention, there was a super loud crashing sound from down on the main deck.

"Shit...do you think someone is trying to break in?" Bella asked, sounding completely petrified. Fuck, I hoped not. I was really hoping to get laid. I pulled my boxers and shorts back on and Bella put her shirt back on before we headed tentatively down the stairs to see what the ruckus was.

I grabbed a Maglite from the closet and Bella grabbed the biggest umbrella in there and we headed through the kitchen to the back together.

"If there is someone out there, we've called the police," Bella shouted, thinking that her threat would scare away any potential burglar. The beach house was equipped with an alarm, but since Charlotte and Peter were out, we didn't have it armed. "I have an umbrella and I'm not afraid to shove it up your ass."

As we neared the back door, Bella and I both heard a suspicious giggle so we lowered our 'weapons' and slid open the back door to find Kate sitting in the hot tub by herself with a glass of wine in her hand.

"What in the fuck are you doing? What was that noise?" Bella challenged as Kate shrugged her shoulders and looked at her with indifference. "You didn't hear that loud crashing noise?"

"Umm...no," she replied suspiciously as Bella began to walk around the deck trying to figure out what was going on. Bella motioned for me to check something out on the far side of the tub and sure enough, there was a broken wine glass there. I did a double take when I looked at Kate, because she was currently sipping out of full glass.

"Okay, something shifty is going on here. You broke a glass, yet you are holding one? Were you double-fisting your drinks?" I questioned as Kate let out a sigh. She also looked seriously pissed that I had bothered to question her.

"No...do I look like a lush to you? Now, I was just trying to enjoy the hot tub and a drink. There's no one breaking in, so go back to whatever the hell you were doing." Bella and I both looked at each other and she looked just as curious as I did. "No, really...you guys can go now."

"Well actually...now that I see you in the tub, I think a nice long soak sounds like a great idea," Bella said, speaking her words slowly, which infuriated Kate.

"I'd like to be alone," Kate forced out as the water suddenly began moving and pouring over the side of the hot tub and Garrett popped up from the water buck naked. His skin was flushed and I could only imagine how long he had been under the water holding his breath. Kate looked mortified to have been caught red-handed, so to speak.

"Holy fuck," he panted breathlessly as I took in his bright red face. "I can't breathe underwater that fucking long. Sorry, Katie."

"What in the hell are you two doing?" I shouted as Garrett didn't bother to cover up his junk, but Bella had the good sense to turn away so that she wasn't looking. "I thought you guys hated each other."

"Hate is such a strong word," Garrett defended as he sat down and Bella came closer to me as I wrapped my arm around her shoulder. "We dislike each other, but we don't hate. Never hate."

"Are you two fucking?"

"Right now?" Garrett questioned with a huge grin on his face. "No, we're not fucking right now. I mean...my dick is big, but she's all the way over there. Anyways, we're not exhibitionists." Bella snorted at the comment about his dick size and I felt somewhat proud. She thought I was bigger than Garrett...fucking right.

"You are stark fucking naked in a hot tub right now and you claim you're not an exhibitionist?"

"Pay attention my friend, I said _we're not_. I would flaunt my shit to half the town, but I respect Kate too much to fuck her in public. The deck of the house is private enough." Since when did he fucking respect Kate? It was only two weeks ago that he was calling her the Hamburgler and suddenly he has no problem having sex with her? How much did she have to drink that she fell for his shit?

"Did you guys fuck in the hot tub at all since we got here?" Bella clarified, with her hands on her hips, looking rather defiant. Fuck, I wanted to fuck her in the hot tub all of a sudden. Kate looked at Garrett and a grin crossed her face, which was a dead giveaway.

"We didn't actually fuck in the tub, just to clarify. We were on the edge."

"Well, I guess Garrett was the one mainly in the tub. I was on the edge when he was eating..."

"Noooo Kate. No more. I don't want to hear it. It doesn't matter if you had sex on the edge or right in the middle, you two are still cleaning that tub out tomorrow," Bella explained, clearly flustered with her best friend. "It feels like everything is just off all of a sudden. You guys are supposed to be hurling insults and names at each other."

"Oh, I called her a few names, alright," Garrett laughed as he moved towards Kate and eased his arm over her shoulder. I think Bella and I were both shocked when Kate leaned in and seemed to genuinely like being beside Garrett.

"The world is ending, that's the only way I can explain this. It's one of the signs of the apocalypse." Bella shouted overdramatically as I looked to my left and saw Peter and Charlotte walk through the back door and onto the deck. They looked pleased as punch with their hands held tightly together.

"What's going on?" Peter asked casually as Bella turned from me and threw her hands up in frustration.

"Garrett and Kate are fucking!"

"Right now? Why in the fuck are we watching?" Charlotte asked mortified as she covered her eyes with her hand.

"No, not right now. They were...they are...I don't know what the hell they are."

"I think we've clarified that we don't hate each other, that's it," Kate admitted as Charlotte pulled her hand from her face and looked at Bella. It was like they had some secret, wordless discussion going on because before I knew it, they were nodding their heads and stalking towards the hot tub.

"Okay, you've had enough. You're coming with us," Charlotte stated as she reached her hand out to grab Kate's elbow and she tried to pull her from the tub. However, Garrett moved his hand to wrap around Kate's waist and he wouldn't let her budge. "Stop it, Garrett. We just need to talk to her."

Garrett whispered something into Kate's ear and she burst out laughing as she shook her head from side to side. "Give me five minutes?"

"No! Now."

"I'm not wearing bottoms," Kate shouted out as Garrett unexpectedly climbed from the hot tub, flashing all of us his junk, and grabbed a towel from the chair beside them. He held it up and helped Kate from the tub, clearly not giving a shit that he was naked. "Thanks, baby," she purred as she leaned in and gave Garrett a kiss while the rest of us cringed.


	11. The Hot Tub Song Outtake from Chapter 6

**So, we were supposed to be posting a brand spanking new chapter tonight, but then we realized a lot of people wanted to see an outtake of how Kate & Garrett hooked up - here it is. It is unbeta'd. Sorry smmiskimen and MaggieMay14. We just couldn't help ourselves, plus we want to post chapter 7 on time tomorrow :)**

**We don't own Twilight. Neither of us has a hot tub either.**

**Chapter Song: I'll Take That as a Yes (The Hot Tub Song) by Phil Vassar  
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**KPOV**

"Are you fucking kidding me?"

All I wanted to do tonight was be alone, ironic considering the whole reason I wanted this summer to happen in the first place was to spend time with my friends, but there has been such a roller coaster and influx of hormones over the past few weeks that all I wanted to do was drink a glass *_cough* bottle_ of wine and relax in the hot tub. It was hot, it was bubbly and those jets…yeah, um, the jets. Just thinking about them sent a thrill coursing through my body. That's what happens when it has been a while; I start relying on jets.

God, apparently, has a warped sense of humor because when I walked out on the deck after going back to the kitchen to get the wine glass I had forgotten on the counter, Garrett was laid out on the edge looking like some sort of greased up 70's porn star, without the' stache.

Oh my god, was that a glow in the dark Speedo?

Must. Avert. Eyes.

"Are you deaf? I asked you a question? What are you doing here?" I flicked my hand in his general direction, not really wanting to look at him again, but it was hard.

Forget the glass, I started chugging straight from the bottle.

"I've been thinking," Garrett started and I choked at the notion that he could put two brain cells together to think. However, he either didn't care that I was choking or the bright yellow light emanating from his lower half blinded him to the point he couldn't see more than 5 inches in front of him.

I chanced a peek. Maybe 6 inches. It was hard to tell because it was just. So. Bright.

"That must be difficult for you… thinking that is."

"I'm just gonna ignore your bitchy little remark. I'm used to them." I rolled my eyes as Garrett looked at me with darkened eyes. Whatever he was going to say must have been serious… well serious for Garrett. " So… Peter and Charlotte, Edward and Bella…what do you say? Wanna do it?"

That was it, I couldn't hold back any more and I had to sit down on the bench before I literally peed myself laughing. _How_ had this guy ever gotten in a girls pants. Wanna do it? Really? _Really?_

Was it wrong that I sort of did?

Obviously, I had had too much wine already, and I held the bottle out in front of me to eyeball the level inside. That HAD to be the reason. I mean it was Garrett… in a Speedo. I didn't even know anyone under the age of 40, or anyone in North America, owned a Speedo. He literally had a banana hammock. I couldn't help but shudder because one plus one equaled completely wrong.

Before I realized what was happening though, he sat up and grabbed the bottle out of my hands and took a drink of his own. Since he was preoccupied with not dribbling out of the corner of his mouth, I took a few secret seconds to check him out. I was feeling rather warm suddenly and I was still pretty convinced he couldn't see me. Obviously I'd seen him in his board shorts pretty much daily since we'd been here, but this was almost like seeing him naked.

Not that I'd want that.

No, no never.

I looked closer. Okay, maybe 6.5 inches.

"Like what you see?"

I was totally busted, and slightly nauseated since that phrase absolutely gives me the willies. It was just so…sleazy. Especially when coming from him.

So explain to me why I said yes.

GPOV

She couldn't resist me. Not that I blamed her one bit.

Okay, so the Speedo was pushing it, but I had gotten a really good deal on it in town earlier in the day and I had to wear it, at least once, otherwise I would be wasting my money. So my moves weren't really smooth and I sort of blurted out the first thing that came to mind, but I was surprised when she actually seemed to respond to my random words. I mean… 'Wanna do it?' who does that work for?

It didn't seem to suck that she was clearly eyeing up my junk as she downed another gulp from her bottle of wine. I nodded my head and gave her a small wink before I offered her my hand and she slid into the water of the hot tub. I ran into the house quickly and grabbed a second glass, so I could enjoy the wine properly with her and when I came back, she looked at me with a hint of lust and annoyance. I got the second look a lot.

"This never happened," she said with a wave of her hand as I smirked, knowing full well that once she had a taste of me she wouldn't quit.

"If you say so."

"No Garrett… no one can know about this… no one."

"Fine, I got ya," I said with a grin as I slipped under the water and pulled my Speedo off, tossing it off the deck. She took another long pull from the bottle of wine and offered it to me. I poured us each a glass and then handed one to her, signaling that we should toast. "To happy surprises?"

"Whatever," Kate sighed before she had a sip of her wine and then grabbed my head, pulling me to her for a kiss.

Things happened pretty quickly after that. I was already undressed and she was just so fucking eager for it, before either of us realized, I was streaking through the house buck naked to get a condom from my sadly, unused, stash upstairs. We fucked frantically on the edge of the tub, Kate calling out my name and cursing that no one could know about us. However, if I had my way, she would be screaming my name for the rest of the summer cause honestly… she had the best fucking pussy ever. And I do mean EVER.

Unfortunately for us, just as we were getting comfortable for a post-coital soak, giggling like drunken idiots at the fact that we had just fucked on the hot tub, we heard footsteps from inside the house.

"Get under the water and I'll blow you later, Garrett." I just shrugged my shoulders, thinking the trade off wasn't too bad and down into the water I went, knocking my wine glass from the edge of the tub and onto the hard wood of the deck, shattering it.

I was under the water for what seemed like forever, and when I finally reached my breaking point, I spluttered to the surface and found Edward and Bella standing there looking shocked as fuck.

"Holy fuck," he panted breathlessly as I took in his bright red face. "I can't breathe underwater that fucking long. Sorry, Katie."


	12. After The Storm

**Welcome back for another installment of COE. Can you believe the summer is almost over? **

**The usual love to MaggieMay14 and smmiskimen for taking this ride with us. They rock.  
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**We don't own Twilight; CPW is glued to the Lollapalooza coverage online and Risbee is watching Shark Week. We never said we were exciting girls :)**

**Chapter Song: After The Storm by Mumford & Sons  
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**BPOV**

I'd always been one of those people that managed to do some of my best thinking in the middle of the night. Most of my papers were written between two and four a.m. My best paintings somehow threw themselves together when I was in a zombie-like state, exhausted and completely alone with just me and the canvas. Once I let my walls down and got rid of the distractions of day to day life, my ideas and thoughts usually became crystal clear.

Not tonight though. I couldn't sleep because my mind was going 800,000,000 miles per hour about everything that had happened here over the past week or so. Well, not everything…just one thing. Or two things, I guess.

Kate and Garrett. Kate _and_ Garrett. _Oh! My! God! Kate and Garrett!_

It made so much sense, well, it didn't…but it did. The hatred, the fighting, the mood swings…all suddenly gone. Poof. Kate just needed to get laid.

So did I, if I was going to start thinking about it. Like in a bad way, bless Edward and his peen that I was now all kinds of up close and personal with.

But he was her step-uncle and she was his step-niece? What the fuck?

It was no different than Greg and Marsha Brady getting it on. And WAY better than Greg and Mrs. Brady, so they had that going for them. Plus, if Kate's ultimate goal of getting her dad to leave Tanya ever worked out, then there would be no issue at all. Hell, I knew of two sisters who married two brothers and I didn't think anything of it. I wasn't sure why this was blowing my mind so much.

Heh…I said blow. Which then made me worry that I'm never ever going to grow up and be able to function as an adult. I was going to be stuck at the proverbial children's table for the rest of my life because I couldn't have an internal monologue without veering towards the crude and perverse. Things were starting to get a bit ridiculous. I couldn't shut my mind off and I felt wound up like a spring.

It had to be close to two thirty in the morning and I was wide awake and I couldn't get comfortable. For what had to be the millionth time, I rolled over and rearranged the pillows, all the while trying not to wake up Edward who was sleeping like the dead beside me. Of course, I probably would be too if I had been able to sleep at all. Would it be completely wrong for me to wake him up to keep me entertained?

Yeah, it probably would. Though if I didn't pass out soon, I was going to have to do it. Or him.

What was keeping me up? Why wasn't I able to fall asleep? I tried to scooch down towards the foot of the bed and realized the problem.

The fucking sheets were tucked in. Oh, hell no. Forget not waking Edward up, we needed to talk about this and we needed to talk about it now.

I coughed loudly. Nothing.

"Edward?" Nope, still nothing. I pulled a pillow out from under his head. No response, though I wasn't completely sure he didn't smile just a little bit.

"I'm not wearing any undies," I whispered into the darkness and well, what do you know? Suddenly he was all handsy and grabby and awake. Ahem, very awake. Unfortunately for him, we were going to have to have a talk first.

"This is serious, Cullen. I absolutely, without a doubt, can NOT sleep with the sheets tucked in at the foot of the bed." I sat up in bed, straightened out the t-shirt he had tried to crawl under and gave him a serious look. Well, as serious as I could look with my messed up hair and swollen lips. I was determined though, and not even his bedroom eyes could distract me.

Those beautiful, green, incredibly sexy eyes that made me think that this conversation could wait until the morning…or at least wait another forty-five minutes, to an hour.

No, I would not be distracted. This had to happen now. All these nights, all these sleepovers, all the times I've slept curled up and around and under Edward's body…oh how I craved that body…and tonight I found out that he preferred to sleep with the sheets tucked in at the foot of the bed.

How was that possible? I mean, there were two absolutes for me to be able to sleep. One, I had to have white noise. A fan, a sound machine or something. Silence was a sleep killer. And two, I had to have one foot sticking out of the covers, or at the very least have the ability to stick one foot out of the covers. The idea of being trapped was almost nauseating and when I tried to explain to Edward that I was somewhat claustrophobic, he just shook his head and said that I was being ridiculous. That apparently I'd been sleeping like this since he started sleeping in here.

Um, excuse me?

"Yup. I'd make you pass out and then get up and fix the sheets once you were sleeping." If it were possible to strut sitting down, he was doing it. Holy preening. "And if I could get that kind of response from you before, just imagine what it will be like when we…"

Umfph.

A massive force came out of nowhere and barreled into my back, which pushed me on top of Edward.

_Well, hello there handsome._

Hold on… what the hell was Charlotte doing here? Suddenly, it became a struggle to keep Charlotte from burrowing beneath our covers where Edward and I were in various states of nakedness. She pulled, we tugged, she fought but we won.

_Hey, at least the covers are untucked on all sides now!_

I was pulling the hem of my t-shirt down to make sure it covered all the necessary parts, as well as Edward's very necessary part. I wiggled against it and did a little bit of sit-strutting of my own when I heard the groan that Edward was trying so desperately to keep inside. He was, first and foremost, a gentleman after all.

So of course, I wiggled again. Because it was _right_ there. Just one millimeter to the side and things would go where they most desperately needed to go. And we both knew it.

Why hadn't we fucked yet? Because, gah, it needed to happen.

Charlotte had given up on the covers and had decided to cover her head with our pillows instead. Her knees were bunched up underneath her and she was balled up so tight that I was honestly afraid that she wouldn't be able to breathe.

"What's going on with her?" Edward was fighting the urge to move so hard that his body was literally vibrating but hell if I was going to complain about _that_ fun little side effect of our behaving ourselves. I wasn't stupid.

"No idea."

"Shouldn't you ask her? I mean, I don't want to sound inconsiderate, or whatever, but…" he thrust his hips up just a little bit and somewhere angels started to cry because Charlotte was in our bed. I tried to pull one of the pillows up, but she just tightened her fists around them. I really, really didn't want to move. Well, maybe that one little millimeter, but obviously that wouldn't be right since Charlotte was cowering beside us.

Sigh.

So I stared and I stared and did everything in my power to will her to move. To leave. To have it turn out that she was merely sleepwalking and that she'd get up and go back to wherever she came from. There may have been some under the breath chanting.

_Leave. Leave. Leave._

"Baby, I can't believe I'm going to suggest this, but maybe you should get off of me and see if she's okay."

_More tears, though they were mine this time._

With a gentle nudge, and not so subtle sighs of remorse from both of us, I crawled off of Edward and off the bed long enough to pull on some yoga pants. Edward went into the bathroom, under the pretense of giving us girls a few minutes, but I knew exactly what he was going to be doing in there and I'd give my left boob to watch.

That was sooo going on the to-do list.

But for now, I had to take care of my obviously traumatized friend. She looked so pathetic that I couldn't even really be mad at her for interrupting. Much.

"Charlotte, sweetie? What's wrong?" She pulled her head out from under the pillows and looked at me with huge eyes. She looked like one of those ridiculous 'Hang In There' cat posters that were always in school libraries and guidance counselor offices.

"Thunder." Then she was gone again.

I pulled at the pillow, but she held firm. I tugged at the pillow and she tightened her hold. I smacked her ass, she yelped and Edward gasped from the doorway of the bathroom. I shot him a look. "Not helping," I groaned as he grinned and shrugged and then went out on the balcony, but not before a gust of wind almost ripped the door from the hinges and a flash of lightening lit up the pre-dawn sky.

_That_ got Charlotte's attention and she re-surfaced, crawling into my lap and almost strangling me.

"Shhhhh…It's just the angels bowling or God playing drums. Or…" I wracked my brain trying to come up with what my grandparents used to tell me when I was little, which was a little silly considering Charlotte knew exactly what thunder was. I mean, we were one year away from our college degrees. So I took another tactic…

"Where is Peter?"

She huffed and burrowed further into my neck as a rumble of thunder echoed through the room. "He's snoring. I tried to wake him up first, but I couldn't get him to move."

"I'll go get him. Why don't you two go downstairs and when I wake him up, we'll meet you in the living room. The storm seems to be off the coast and with those open windows, it could be pretty spectacular to watch."

Just as he closed the door to the balcony, lightning struck. I don't know where, but it was close, and suddenly the room, the house, the whole part of the island that we could see from our window, was swamped in darkness.

And Charlotte was in my shirt.

I lit the candle that was on my dresser and gestured for Charlotte to come with me. Edward was right about going downstairs…and with the windows, there was bound to be a bit more light…at least when the lightning flashed. Which it was doing every 1.5 seconds, or so it seemed.

I handed her the candle and pulled a bunch of blankets out of the hall closet. I figured at the very least, we could cuddle up on the couch and wait out the storm. Or better yet, Edward could arrive with Peter and then take me back up to my bed and make sweet, sweet love to me while Peter and Charlotte could wait out the storm and he dealt with her particular brand of crazy.

I grabbed a few more candles from the shelves and we walked into the living room to find that we were not alone. Kate and Garrett were there…and so was Peter.

Oh thank God! Charlotte relaxed the death grip she had on my arm and flew into his arms. How she managed to do that and still keep the candle upright, lit and not set the house on fire I wasn't sure. I walked over to her, took it from her hand and let Peter know that she was all his.

Edward joined us a few minutes later since he obviously wasn't able to find Peter in his room and I shivered as I felt his arms snake around my waist from behind as he leaned in to whisper in my ear. "Why don't we go back upstairs finish our discussion from earlier?"

Now, I wasn't a psychology major, nor was I a mind-reader, but I knew full well that talking was not what Edward was really talking about. Eh, talking was over-rated.

"Uh-uh. No way, you two. You aren't going anywhere until the power gets back on. So you might as well grab a beer from the fridge and get over it." Kate chimed in from over by the window. "I know that face, Bella. And there is no way you two are going upstairs and leaving us up here to pretend we're not hearing anything."

At that moment, I hated Kate, but we were stuck. We needed to get away from this house, from our friends and from people that thought it was okay to get in our bed, literally and figuratively. Or keep us out of it, in this case. For now though, we were stuck.

Edward chuckled behind me and grazed a boob. Traitor.

"But right now, its time for some dirty scrabble."

"Oh fuck me." I groaned and wanted to cry as he emerged from the cabinets with a board game and a smile.

"Exactly."

**EPOV**

"Okay, here are the rules," called out Garrett as Bella settled in beside me on the floor and her hand entwined in mine. Though we were all gathered around the coffee table, we were also all coupled up, which was kind of sweet. Though I would never mention that to the guys cause they would probably ask for my man card back. Stupid idiots. "The words you use can only be dirty words."

"Define dirty?" questioned Charlotte as Peter pulled her to his side and kissed her temple. Poor, sweet misguided girl. "Like, do I write down muddy or disgusting?"

"Oh god no! Porny, sexy, that kind of dirty," Garrett clarified as all of us looked game except for Charlotte. What the hell? The girl could burst out and tell us she was fucking Peter, but she wouldn't write down a dirty scrabble word? Candles flickered around us as Peter reassured her in his soothing voice that she could write some easy dirty words like vagina. I just cringed. Vagina wasn't dirty, it was clinical. "Okay, so are we all game? Don't back out now Princess Tree Hugger. Just think of words you scream out while Peter here is drilling you like the Texas oil fields."

"So like... holy fucking shit?" Char asked as Bella covered her mouth to stop from laughing. "or Jesus, you have a huge dick?"

"Uh... sure, those would work but you only need one word, so use fucking or dick."

"What about huge?"

"That's not that dirty," Kate replied, hoping to ease some of the frustration you could see on Garrett's face. I think I saw a vein pulsing on his forehead, but that was commonplace when he talked with Charlotte. They tolerated each other, but didn't particularly get along that well.

"Penis?"

"Sure, Penis works."

"What about slagathor?" Bella added as Charlotte shot her an angry glare, and I couldn't help my laughter. When the girls were all together, regardless of whether they had been drinking or not, they all tend to be 'no holds barred'. Anything goes, and I appreciated that. Garrett did too, but he was still expecting them to start wrestling in hot oil or something.

"Hey, she resembles that remark," tossed in Kate as Garrett sat down beside her and handed her a beer and we all finish arranging our seven tiles in our stands. "Now, shut up and let's get playing."

I have nothing useful and I can tell Bella has the same, so we all take turns to reach into the bag and pull out letters to decide who is going first. I have to fight back a laugh when Garrett pulls out a Z and Bella has A. As we start, Bella reaches into the bag and pulled out another letter, but was unable to make any sort of porny word.

"I have book," Bella whispers to me as I glance down at her letters. Sure enough, she can write book, but not much else. "If I had another b, I'd have boob." I quickly glance down at the v-neck of her shirt, admiring her cleavage. I want to tell her that I love her boobs, but I refrain and look at my board.

"I have sea," I reply back as Bella's hand snakes up my leg, getting extremely close to my crotch. Just as I am about to place my hand over hers, the talking at the table pulls us from our sneaky movements.

"This is gonna be boring for a bit," Peter explains as Garrett shoots him a look that says 'shut the fuck up'. It takes one more round of picking letters before Kate puts down her first word – lay.

"See Charlotte, you can go with something simple like lay," Peter says soothingly as Garrett used the L from lay to put down the word oil. I can't help but cringe as Kate starts to blush beside him. It's dark in the room, the only light coming from the three dozen candles placed around us or the lightning outside, but Kate's blush is obvious. I don't even want to know what the fuck they have done that involves oil.

It took a little while, but slowly, longer and dirtier words were put onto the board and, even though the storm was pounding away at the house outside, we were all getting nice and drunk inside. "No way, that doesn't count," I called out as Peter put down BJ as a word. "You have to use the full term of blow job. No short forms."

"Oh come on, it's dirty enough. Everyone calls it a BJ," Peter defended as Bella looked at me and pointed to my letters. "Fine, be a fucker." Peter pulled back his letters and using the A in lay, he added the word ass. "You good with that or is that too much of a short form for asshole?"

"Don't be a douche, Peter," Kate chimed in as I gave her an unexpected high five. Wow, I must have been drunk if I was agreeing with and high fiving Kate. Then I watched as Kate put down her letters and had a huge grin on her face. "I just put sperm off of Peter's ass."

"Hey, don't touch my man's ass," Charlotte said with a slur as she waved her hand stupidly at Kate and Bella just giggled beside me. "I got a good one for sperm – eat me."

"Woah, can she use two words? We're not making sentences here, bitch," Bella said through her laughter as Charlotte threw a letter at her and Bella picked it up grinning. "Woo hoo, now I can put down vibrator. Thanks, Char!"

"Ok, the only rule variation we were doing was that the words had to be dirty. No more sentences, slang, short forms or the like, alright?" Garrett clarified as Bella stood up, whispering to me that she needed another drink. Honestly, the last thing any of us needed was anymore beer, because it seemed like we had turned scrabble into a drinking game, but it's not like we were going anywhere anytime soon.

When Bella left to get her drink, we took a quick break and I scanned through my letters again, making sure I had what I thought I did. At least I would if Bella put down vibrator on her next turn. Just as I took a final swig of my beer and was about to shout out to Bella to grab me another one, there was a scream from the kitchen that scared all of us.

I jumped up anxiously and ran in to the kitchen to find Garrett cowering against the fridge. "What the fuck was going on?" His hand was clutching the handle like his life depended on it. "What did you do?"

"Nothing man, I swear. It was all your girl," Garrett said anxiously as he pointed at Bella. I squinted through the darkness and Bella let out a small sigh.

"Okay, I may have grabbed his ass thinking he was you."

"How on earth could you confuse me and Garrett?" I asked in frustration as Bella came towards me, Garrett backing away from her so she couldn't grope him again. "I'm like a foot taller than him."

"Fuck you Cullen."

"But you guys are wearing the same shorts," Bella said with a hint of remorse. If I could see her better, I was sure I would see regret on her face, but it wasn't completely obvious. However, I trusted my girl implicitly, so if she said it was an accident that she grabbed Garrett's ass, I believed her.

"It doesn't matter," I replied as I held her against me and kissed her lips sweetly. "I trust you and I know you would never grab his ass on purpose. It's not nearly as nice as mine. Anyways, where did Peter go?"

"He mentioned something about getting a flashlight since he couldn't see his letters that well,' Kate explained as we heard footfalls down the stairs and Peter appeared holding... what was that?

"I found a flashlight!" Peter declared triumphantly as he sat down in his darkened corner of the table and lifted it up, turning it on, as we all broke out into laughter at complete lack of light, and the random buzzing noise.

"Oh my god, Peter!" Charlotte grabbed, what I could now tell was a vibrator, from her boyfriend's hands and sprinted upstairs with Peter on her heels. The rest of us began rolling on the floor, laughing at the awkward situation as we could hear arguing upstairs, no doubt from Charlotte yelling at Peter for grabbing her vibrator and not a flashlight.

"I bet that is going to be an interesting conversation," Bella added in as we sat back down and she rested her head against my chest. "You'd think Peter would know about her toy obsession by now."

"Maybe she hasn't told him about it or he hasn't had a chance to use them on her," Kate added as Bella looked at me quizzically. "I never knew any girl who spent as much time researching sex toys as our Charlotte. They had to be environmentally friendly, which is odd considering that one was made of rubber."

"Oh, so she won't use plastic bags, but she'll fuck herself with a rubber dildo? That girl has issues," Garrett laughed as I felt Bella's hand against my leg and I wished more than anything I was alone with her in a room full of toys. "I bet the battery was rechargeable and that is her rationale for using it."

"Do you have toys, baby?" I whispered quietly as my fingers danced along the waistband of her shorts and I could hear her breathing hitch as I ran one finger under the fabric, closer to the apex of her thighs.

"Come on you two, let's get this game moving," Kate called as Peter and Charlotte sat back down, both of them looking rightfully embarrassed. Of course, we didn't help matters much when Bella put down vibrator and I was able to use the T from her word to put down masturbate. Charlotte and Peter both gave us death looks and pretended to laugh at our humor. Bella and I certainly found it funny as fuck.

"How long have you been saving those tiles?" Garrett exclaimed as I looked proudly at the board and calculated my score

"What? I found the perfect word. You're just bitter you didn't come up with it." I challenged as Garrett laughed me off and wrapped his shoulder around Kate before taking a swig of his beer.

"I came up with cum and anal," he declared proudly as suddenly Charlotte used the V from vibrator to add vagina.

"Triple word score bitches!" she shouted triumphantly as we all burst into laughter and Garrett proceeded to knock over the board and our letters went flying all over the place. "Oh come on, I was finally doing good. What the fuck?"

"Charlotte, did you just swear?"

"Just because I don't like to swear, doesn't mean I don't know how, asshole," she replied to Garrett as he stared at her slack jawed. This girl certainly was an enigma, it was no wonder Peter was so attracted to her.

Just as I was about to throw my two cents in to the conversation, the lights in the house suddenly came on. "Hallejuah," Kate shouted happily as she gripped Garrett's hand in hers and pulled him out of the room. "The storm is letting up and we can get some sleep. Let's go."


	13. The Way Young Lovers Do

**Evening All! Well, those of you on the east coast. Not much news to report here. CPW is fighting off a cold (yet again) and Risbee posted her one shot from the Fandom For Sexual Assault Awareness Compilation on her own profile. Go check it out after you read this.**

**We don't own Twilight; We both have One Day as an ebook and are looking forward to reading it.  
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**Chapter Song: The Way Young Lovers Do by Van Morrison (but the Jeff Buckley version rocks too!)  
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**BPOV**

"Where are we going?" I ran my fingers seductively up Edward's arm, feeling the heat radiating from his skin. We'd spent all day on the beach with our friends, enjoying being six kids on the verge of responsible adulthood. I couldn't believe it was almost over. No. I wouldn't think about that. I'd think about it another time.

Apparently I was channeling my inner Scarlett O'Hara today.

I batted my eyelashes like the Southern Belle I thought I was, well as much of one as I could be considering I was born and raised in Washington State, but I thought I was pulling it off. Until Charlotte handed me a bottle of water because she thought I needed to get sand out of my eyes.

Edward couldn't stop laughing.

I pouted and folded my arms under my boobs, knowing they were pushed up a bit and stuck out my tongue. "Are you offering?" Edward asked before he knocked me backwards on the beach blanket and hovered over me, not even caring a bit that we had an audience. His warm body trapped my arms between us and his mouth closed over my own.

It wasn't the exact result that I was going for, but who was I to complain? It felt good, like _really_ good, and I moaned into his mouth, deepening the kiss and encouraging him as I felt his hands start to fumble with the back of my bikini top.

"Um, you guys, as much as I adore you both, there are things that I just don't care to see. And I'm pretty sure the lady over there with the small kids probably wishes you weren't practically fucking on the beach, though I think her husband is pretty into it." Kate threw a towel over our heads and with one quick nibble on Edward's bottom lip, I pulled away.

"She's probably right." I wanted to cry and Edward dropped his head in to my shoulder and muttered something unintelligible under his breath. "Wanna go inside?" I asked, trying to sound seductive.

Without giving me an answer, he slid off to the side, still muttering to himself and laying very still for a few minutes. I was afraid to touch him, though I wanted to, desperately, but he was giving off this vibe like he was about two seconds away from losing control. While that concept turned me on more than I could possibly describe, the woman's husband was still staring in our direction and honestly, it was beginning to creep me out a little.

The guy needed to be introduced to the internet and its vast supply of porn, not watching a couple of sexually frustrated people combust on the beach.

"Bella, can you hand me my towel?" Edward finally surfaced from the sand and I handed it to him, watching as he slowly stood up and wrapped the towel firmly around his waist.

Oh. _Oh._ I snickered a little bit louder than I meant to and he arched his eyebrow at me. "Got a bit of a problem there, E?" I teased.

"That's it. We're not going anywhere tonight." He picked up his chair and moved to the other side of Peter and sat down, opening a beer.

He was bluffing. He had to be bluffing.

I waited… He was totally bluffing, right?

When he opened a second beer, I began to panic. For a week now, I had been trying to figure out what he had planned for our date. Where we were going, what we were doing and what he had up his sleeve, but he was locked up like Fort Knox and I couldn't get as much as a vibe from him.

All I knew is that Kate knew our plans and that even she wouldn't say a word. I had to wonder how Edward had managed that. According to her, I shouldn't worry and she tried to assure me that Edward was taking care of everything else, but it was the not knowing that was killing me. Oh, and I was supposed to give him my cell phone. Unless it was one of my parents, everybody else would have to wait for me to call them back.

Not gonna lie, Edward taking charge was more than a little hot. Especially considering when he really got going, the hiccups came back.

I started imagining Edward, hovered over me, with his eyes smoldering. I could feel the heat course down my body and I absentmindedly started to roll my ankles and fidget. I was getting worked up and considering I was on the beach, there was little I could do to rectify the situation. Edward knew what was going on though, and when I looked over at him, I knew I was busted. Like he could read my mind, his eyes were dark and piercing. He looked like Flynn Ryder, but way hotter.

I hopped up off my blanket, picking it up, not even caring that I was flinging sand everywhere and started running up the beach towards the wooden walk way leading back towards the house. It was a risky move, but I felt pretty certain that Edward would follow.

I was not disappointed.

Just as I reached the balcony door to my room, he caught up and crashed into me, pressing his body against mine and I shrieked as my skin made contact with the cold glass, sending my senses into overload.

"Jesus Christ, can't you two keep your hands off of each other for two whole minutes? I mean, have some control people." Kate reached around me and opened the sliding door, sending a blast of cool air over us and I watched as she walked over to my closet, pulling out a white strapless dress. "Should I even bother picking out panties," she yelled over her shoulder as I cringed at her use of one of my no-no words, "or would that be a waste of pretty frilly things?" She eyed the two of us, still wrapped around each other, before shutting my drawer and turning around empty handed. "Thought so."

After picking out shoes and putting them at the foot of my bed, she marched back out the door, pinched Edward's ass and told us both to have fun.

As soon as Kate was out of sight, I turned back to face Edward, hoping to restart things from where we had been interrupted, but I sighed when I saw the look on his face. Gone was the feral, controlling, 'I'm going to fuck you into next week look'. And while I was more than just a little bit disappointed, I still couldn't help but melt when I saw the moony, dreamy, 'I love you so much face'. Not that we had said those words to each other, but I could totally see the look on his face.

I melted into his arms, murmuring "Tonight?" into his shoulder and I felt him nod and whisper it back.

Good times were going to get way better before the night was over. I wanted to twirl around and around the deck, but then the rational side of me kicked in and I knew that if we could get ready before the rest of the group came back up from the beach, there was less chance of any interference, disruption or natural disaster.

With one more searing kiss and maybe a grope or seven, I pulled away. "Go, and stop pouting. Tonight is all your idea. If it were up to me, we'd…" He put a hand over my mouth and shook his head, hiccupping a few times before regaining control and turning me to face my room, not so coincidentally pressing himself up against my back.

Sweet mother of god why were we leaving the house? We should just lock all the doors and make everybody else leave. Yeah. That.

Suddenly though, he was gone. I turned my head to watch him walk back towards his room, not so subtly adjusting the situation in his board shorts. "Want some help?" I yelled really, _really_ wanting him to say yes.

"Be ready in thirty minutes, Bella." He turned back to me, his eyes flashing the darkest green I have ever seen.

Yes, Sir!

I was ready in twenty-six minutes and in twenty-eight we were backing out of the driveway.

"So, you still won't tell me where we're going?"

"We're going to the Grocery."

Seriously? I looked at him wondering if he had gotten too much sun or something because the grocery store definitely wasn't what I considered to be a hot date. Like, at all. I mean, I'd heard stories about the produce section and other twisted things, but that didn't seem like something he would be into.

I could hear Edward start to laugh beside me and I pouted, but couldn't help but ease up a bit when I felt a hand start playing with a strand of my hair. He definitely knew how to get me to calm down. Touch a hair on my head and I was like goo. Seriously, it was all I could do to keep from purring.

"I swear Edward, if you take me to Food Lion, I'll…" I stumbled, not really sure what I'd do because it was then that I realized that it didn't matter where we went or what we did or anything like that. As long as I was with Edward, I was happy. He was what was important, the rest was just fluff.

"You'll what?" He countered, grinning slightly, still messing with my hair.

Purr.

"I have no idea," I confessed, laughing lightly and scooting over as close to him as my seatbelt and the center console would allow. Admittedly it wasn't all that much closer, but still it made me feel better, and maybe gave him a bit more wiggle room to mess with my hair, you know…if he happened to feel like it.

He felt like it.

We drove along for a few minutes, not in a hurry, and just watched the island pass as we made our way. "Not Food Lion. We're going to Beaufort Grocery, Bella," he finally offered and I felt sooooo much better. Because really, Food Lion really was going to be tough to swallow.

But I'd do it. For him.

The rest of the drive was spent in silence, with gentle touches and smiles. We were communicating without words, on this whole different level than anything we've done before, though the fact that we were constantly surrounded by other people probably didn't help things. It was like we were in our own little bliss bubble, all grinny, sappy and lovey dovey. A complete one-eighty from the atmosphere outside my door.

We could be respectable, after all. At least for a little while.

Somehow Edward found a place to park right by the marina and since we were a bit early for our reservations, we took the time to walk around looking at all the boats and we also did a little people watching. Earlier in the day, there had been some sort of street festival and there were quite a few people milling around while their vendor booths were in the process of being broken down. It was actually pretty funny to walk around and then be standing next to a pirate.

Except for the one that had the stereotypical parrot on his shoulder. Here was a little secret about me; birds freaked me the fuck out. Couldn't explain why even if I wanted to, I just didn't like them. Especially ones that could talk. It just wasn't right.

And now it was staring at us with its beady black eye and green head turned at almost a right angle.

"Edward!" I gasped, grabbing him and putting him between me and the bird, which was still too close, but at least wasn't able to reach me with one of its scaly feet if had tried.

Then the unthinkable happened. It left the pirate's shoulder and hopped over to Edward's head.

I took off running, not even caring that I was in a strapless dress and red wedges that were cutting off the circulation in my toes. I heard Edward calling for me but I didn't care. I was getting the fuck away from that bird. I knew where the Grocery was and yelled as much back in his direction.

The parrot started squawking and I swear it was laughing at me as it preened and fluffed herself up like some sort of avian badass. She probably wanted Edward all for herself. Fine feathered friend, my ass.

When I reached the safety of the sidewalk across the street, I stopped for a minute and turned around. There were feathers flying and Edward was trying to beat off the advances of the parrot as gently as he could but apparently she refused to take no for an answer. The pirate was trying to contain her, she had latched on to Edward's collar with her beak and would not let go. There was yelling and flapping and apparently the bird had ventriloquist skills because she was emitting this incredibly loud squawking noise without opening her beak.

If I wasn't watching it, I would have never believed it, or I would have figured that Charlotte was involved somehow as I looked around for her just in case.

Edward finally escaped from the beast by removing his shirt, and I grudgingly admitted that maybe the parrot wasn't all _that_ bad. As long as she kept her distance.

Once Edward was safely on the sidewalk beside me, with feathers in his hair and his shirt in his hand, I couldn't stop laughing.

At all.

I grabbed his arm, not able to breathe, no sound coming out of my mouth and I couldn't feel my legs, though some of that was probably because of my shoes.

"Are you done?" Edward asked as he ran his fingers through his hair trying to fix it, I guess, but even I knew that was a lost cause. I tried so hard to regain my composure, I really did, but when I looked back up at him, I just couldn't help it.

"Shut it." He started to button his shirt but was getting frustrated, so I pulled his hands away, buttoning it myself.

"I adore you," I admitted. Because I did.

Completely.

**EPOV**

Little known fact – I hate birds. My grandmother used to have a budgie named Peanut that could talk, but all he ever did was curse in Spanish. It was the weirdest thing, but my grandmother claimed it was special because she never taught it to do that, it just learned on its own. She never did put two and two together regarding where she got the damn thing – her creepy Spanish neighbor Juan.

Regardless, the moment I saw the bird, because Bella pushed me in front of it as she tried to hide, I couldn't help but find myself feeling a little frightened, but also I was trying to not show that to Bella. I was on the verge of hiccupping when the bird latched itself onto my collar and Bella ran like the wind. She was surprisingly agile in those sexy as fuck shoes.

Of course, it was about two seconds after we finally sat down at our table at Grocery, that Bella pulled her shoes off and began cursing. However, her cursing was in English, unlike Peanut.

"These shoes are bloody evil. Remind me to stab Kate when we get home for making me wear them." Bella shoved her shoes out of the way and I could see instant relief on her face.

"We're not going home tonight," I replied, a little proud of myself for all the effort and sneakiness that had gone into our evening. "Kate packed a bag for you and it's in the car. I tried to give her some ideas on what to pack, but I have no idea if she followed through. She just sorta winked at me and took the bag I offered her."

"Well shit, I could have nothing in that bag; you do realize this, right?" Bella questioned as I suddenly grew concerned. Surely Kate would have included something on the list I had given her. Fuck, I hoped so. "She's just mischievous like that. Kinda like a sea otter."

"You are comparing your best friend to a sea otter?"

"Yeah...she's cute and cuddly, but you get too close and BAM, she'll bite your fingers off. Well, not literally, but you get the point." I let out a small sigh and forced back a hiccup of anxiety as our waitress approached and handed us our menus, before going over the specials rapid fire. We both ordered drinks, and were carded, which made Bella a little nervous, but they accepted her I.D. without an issue.

Dinner was seriously awesome, like better than I could have expected, if not a little pricey. Bella was totally worth it though. Especially since this was probably going to be the only major date of our summer. However, as we sat together enjoying an apple crisp with vanilla gelato, I realized I couldn't dwell on the fact that the summer was almost over. I had to think about happier things, and anything was happier than that.

"Okay, so if we aren't going home tonight... where are we going?" Bella asked as we walked out of the restaurant and started heading towards my car. Our fingers were entwined and a warm breeze blew across us as we headed back towards the marina. "Are you going to tell me anything?"

"We're staying at a little B&B. I thought we deserved some alone time." I replied as Bella's face lit up a little bit, then she frowned. "What...what's wrong?"

"Won't that be like staying with our parents? I mean...I won't exactly want to jump your bones if I think the old broad who is the innkeeper will be listening to me make you scream my name," Bella said boldly and I couldn't help but laugh loudly as she quirked her eye brows at me.

"How would that be different than a hotel? Wouldn't any other nearby guests hear us?"

"I guess I hadn't thought about that," Bella replied as I pulled her to my side and wrapped my arm over her shoulder. "Still...it's weird."

"Bella, stop worrying about it. I promise you, when we are in our room, all by ourselves, you won't care."

And I was right.

The moment we walked through the door of our suite at the Harborlight Guest House, the last thing she seemed to be concerned with was any other guests at the hotel. I tossed our bags onto the settee at the end of the bed and before I had a chance to even catch my breath Bella was gripping my shirt forcefully and pulling me against her, our lips meeting roughly.

As much as I wanted her to control the situation, because let's face it, that shit would be hot as hell, I had a plan. I wanted her to feel loved, to know how much I cared about her, beyond the sex. Though, from the way she was feeling up my dick through my pants, I could sense the sex would be epic. We just had to get there, so I pulled back.

"What's wrong?" she questioned as she reached up and started to unzip her dress, my fingers reaching to still hers, although I was saddened by this. "Did you want to do that?"

"Well, yeah...but you do realize we're in no rush right?" I asked as I made my way over to the window, where I opened the curtains to let the light in from the moon. It was all sorta picturesque with the moon reflecting on the moon, and boats in the marina sitting calmly. I, however, was anything but calm. I had no idea how I was not having a massive hiccup attack at that moment.

Bella sat on the edge of the bed and looked at me with concern. "You do realize we've been trying to fuck for the last few weeks and now, that you have me alone, with this large king sized bed, it seems a little weird that you don't wanna have sex, right?"

"Yeah, so?" I asked as I toed off my shoes and made my way over to her, lifting one foot up to take off her shoe and then the second. I rubbed at her feet a little, catching her smile brighten as my hand moved slowly up her calve and then back down. "Does this help?"

"A little," she admitted but then she gave me a rather salacious grin as she pulled her foot from my hand and pushed herself back on the bed, her legs spread as she leaned back on her hands. "I'm all for the romantic gesture you have going on here, Edward, but there's just one thing you seem to have forgotten about."

"Oh really?"

"We have a few weeks left and then summer is over. If you take your time now," she began as her hands slowly moved down her inner thighs as she spread her legs as wide as her skirt would let her. "We won't exactly be able to do it as much as I would like. I'm all about quantity over quality right now, and I know that even the quantity I get will be filled with quality sex. Am I talking out my ass?"

I couldn't help myself. Since I was already on my knees in front of her, one little peek at her obviously wet panties literally softened my resolve and hardened by cock. I was definitely done for. Without a second thought, I practically lunged at her, desperate to feel my lips and body against hers, because she was right. Time was of the essence.

Bella's hands immediately reached up and her fingers deftly began to unbutton my shirt before she pushed the fabric off my shoulders and threw my shirt on the floor. So much for my plans to be the aggressor, I thought to myself as Bella's lips found purchase against my chest and I fought against the urge to just rip her dress from her.

Instead, I pushed the fabric up around her waist and positioned myself between her legs as she spread them wider, welcoming me in. Bella's lips made their way up my neck and even though it felt so fucking good, I actually had to pull her back from me to kiss her on the lips. "Get undressed," Bella purred as her fingers danced down my chest and she pushed me away somewhat, clearly eager to get the show on the road, so to speak.

"You first," I said succinctly as Bella grinned at me and jumped up on the bed to turn around and unzip the dress. She shimmied it down her svelte body and lifted her foot to kick it off as she stood there dressed in just a bra and panties, looking perfect, beautiful and sexy as sin all at once.

Not wanting to stand there with my mouth wide open looking like a complete idiot, I quickly shed my own clothes, leaving the boxers in place, before I grabbed Bella's ankles and playfully pulled her down onto the bed. She giggled loudly and all my anxiety, and the hiccups I had been fighting back, disappeared. We were clearly meant to be here and I wanted nothing more than to, although it was a bit Neanderthal of me, to claim her as mine.

So I kissed her on her lips, down the column of her neck and across her chest, Bella's continued soft moans spurring me on. My hands explored every inch of her soft body, gently peeling her bra and panties from her to leave her completely nude and waiting for me. I still couldn't believe I had gotten _this_ lucky. Here was the most beautiful girl I had ever laid eyes on and she wanted me to have sex with her. I don't know what part of me appealed to her, but whatever it was, I was so fucking thankful.

"Edward," Bella said slowly as my lips made their way along her inner thigh, kissing her softly. "Get out of your brain...and your boxers, baby." Bella winked and grinned at me, and I couldn't help the smile that crossed my face, because she really did know me very well. I pushed my boxers off and climbed onto the bed with her, her arms wrapping around my neck and pulling me down to meet her sweet lips.

Our coming together was slow and easy at first, both of us eager to touch and feel every inch of the other, but the moment I slipped inside of her, it became frantic and intense. Her name fell from my lips reverently as moved within her and I felt like I had finally found my missing puzzle piece, one I didn't even know I was without. It was like we were meant to be together – always.

Lips and hands were everywhere as I thrust inside her, listening to her moans urge me on. Bella wanted more, so I moved faster and harder within her, my hands gripped the headboard in front of me to help me move deeper. Words fell from my mouth telling her just how much she meant to me and how beautiful she was. Our first time was a mixture of emotion, desperation and love, though I would never admit that to Bella; not yet anyways.

With her hand situated between us, stroking her clit deftly, I leaned down and sucked one of Bella's nipples into my mouth as I pushed deeper. I wanted to bring her to that precipice with me, which was a little ambitious for our first, but I was so close to my release I couldn't help biting down on her breast and tugging on her nipple. She cried out and I felt her contract around my length as I buried my head into her neck and thrust harder and deeper, bringing about my own release with a disturbing grunt of ecstasy.

When I rolled off of Bella, pulling her into my side to kiss her temple sweetly, I looked down on her and saw a huge smile across her face. "What?"

"Nothing." Bella tugged the quilt from the bottom of the bed up, over both of us and curled in closer to my side.

"That smile is not for nothing, Bella."

"Fine...that was just..."

"Awesome?"

"The best ever." I couldn't help the smile that crossed my face at that moment hearing that I was her best. I had to admit, Bella was definitely my best experience too, but I knew that was because I was falling hard and fast for this girl. There were emotions involved that I had never had with anyone else before, but I refused to scare her away. I would take what I could get from this beautiful creature, for as long as she would let me.

"I adore you," I replied simply as Bella rolled closer to me and kissed my chest softly.

"Ready for round two? Quantity over quality, remember?" Bella's hand slid under the blanket and wrapped around my cock, stroking it back to life slowly.

Yeah, I definitely remember.


	14. Girls Just Wanna Outtake from Chapter 8

**So, this little outtake should have come last weekend, but we just decided to write it the other day. Surprise! Thanks to MaggieMay14 who beta'd this quickly for us. The next chapter will post tomorrow.**

**We don't own Twilight; we are both looking forward to our kids going back to school **Risbee and CPW dance around happily like morons****

**Chapter Song: Girls Just Wanna Have Fun by Cyndi Lauper**

**BPOV**

"Would you just look at them, I mean…I'm a little disgusted, I have to admit."

Edward and I had just pulled into the driveway back at the beach house after the most deliciously sinful night of my life to what I could only describe as a freakin' welcoming committee. Kate and Charlotte sat on the front steps shucking corn and trying to look like that was just a coincidence that they were outside when we returned.

Coincidence, my ass.

"Don't you think you're being a bit accusatory? I mean, they're up to their elbows in corn…maybe they really are just being…productive?" I couldn't help the obnoxious snort I let out as I turned to look at Edward.

The idea of Kate and Charlotte being productive should have answered Edward's question before he even verbalized it, but hey, whatever. I knew these two women like the back of my hand. The mountain of ears on the steps beside them notwithstanding, there was no way possible that these two were up to any good.

I started counting the ears they had cleaned already and was amazed by the sheer quantity that lay beside them. Good lord; how long had they been out here waiting for us to return?

"Trust me. They're laying in wait…lying in wait? Gah, I always get that confused. Anyway, trust me when I say I'm getting ready to be ambushed. There is absolutely no way in hell those girls really needed to shuck that much corn unless they were holding a party for all of Emerald Isle."

Edward put the car in park and I gently grabbed his forearm, stopping him before he could open the door. There had always been a spark or zing or something whenever I touched him, but now, after last night, it had evolved into something even more electric. I knew what those hands, mouth, and body could do to me and how we felt together. I'd never be able to go back to the way things were before, emotionally or physically. I needed this man beside me more than I needed air to breathe, food to eat, or Coach K to retire. Yes, even more than that, which was saying a lot.

"Here's the plan. When I say 'go', I want you to pop the trunk. When you open your door, run around and grab our stuff. I'd say we could leave it till later, but I may have snagged a few of the croissants from breakfast this morning and I don't want them to get stale." He looked at me amused, but I just shrugged. They were really good, what can I say. "They'll expect me to get out on my side, but I'll scoot across the console, if you remember, I'm rather adept at doing that." It was my turn to grin and his turn to hiccup.

Precious.

"I'll run to the door inside and meet you in your room. The key is to stay together. They'll want to divide and conquer, but I know their methods. They can't fool me. Okay, on the count of three, go."

One…two…

Suddenly my passenger side door was opened and a neatly manicured claw, I mean, hand grabbed my own.

Fuck.

As I looked up, I saw Charlotte holding the spare set of keys belonging to Edward's car. Damn him for being such a boy scout. I totally should have thought to hide them before we left yesterday, especially since I knew how crafty my friends could be. I looked at Edward with wide eyes, seeing my terror reflected in his own 'deer in the headlights' look.

Kate leaned in the car and her sultry voice at my ear made me cringe. "Bella, come. Charlotte has something she needs to talk to us about."

Charlotte…_right_…

As I was pulled from the car, succumbing to my inevitable fate, I screamed for Edward to save himself. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Garrett and Peter high five themselves as they popped up from the bushes they must have been hiding behind, and I knew it was too late.

As he mouthed 'I adore you,' the words that melted my heart those blissful hours before, I resigned myself to the 2011 version of the Spanish Inquisition. And maybe, a part of me wondered if I could knock them out with a couple of ears of corn.

After all, I could be pretty resourceful when the situation required it.

As soon as we were out of ear shot, they started. The girls came at me fast and furious, sorta like Edward. Suddenly, my legs were a bit noodly as I thought back to our time alone and... gah. Seriously, it was like I was high or something. I couldn't stop the Cheshire cat grin and I felt like I was floating.

"Where did you go for dinner? I told him Grocery, but did he listen? They have great vegetarian dishes there. Though, you probably wanted to stay away from legumes. If I had thought about it, I would have told him to bring some Beano…"

"So, did he know what he was doing? I've seen what he's got to work with, but can he use it? Garrett does this thing where…"

Charlotte and Kate were relentless. Did we use condoms? Are we home early because the inn owner kicked us out? Did he tell me he loved me? Did I tell him that I loved him because it was completely obvious that I did? Even if I wanted to answer every one of their completely invasive questions, which I didn't, I couldn't because they were talking over each other.

With every question, they scooted closer until they were practically on my lap. In fact, I was pretty sure that Kate was vibrating as I tried to keep up as best as I could. "Grocery, yes, no, I can't remember, balsamic vinaigrette, yes but I'm not discussing that." I let out a big sigh and then continued on. "No, he doesn't have any piercings and if you start talking about Garrett I'm leaving." I couldn't. My head was spinning and they wouldn't... shut up.

I tried to tell them that we ran into that girl, Lauren, when we were looking at the boats and we joined her little celibacy club.

They didn't buy it. In fact, Kate seemed a little angry at the mere mention of her name. Was she pouting? _Really?_

"You always tell us stuff, B. We always share. I knew the second you kissed that guy freshman year. I sensed it. Charlotte can't keep a secret to save her life, so I don't worry about her, but you kept you and Edward quiet until we busted you. I don't think I like this at all. It's just so…respectable of you." She wrinkled her nose and picked up a piece of corn.

Some of the brown corn silks fell in her lap as she started to tear off the husks.

"At least tell me you didn't have to pull hairs out of your mouth." She gagged a little bit and I started to wonder how we were friends. She is just…I don't even know.

Things were different this time, this thing with Edward. This wasn't just a college hookup or summertime fling or whatever. I didn't want to flaunt it, I wanted to nurture it and keep it safe and just between the two of us.

I turned back to Charlotte who, all this time, had still been going on and on about something that I couldn't follow. Kate. Charlotte. Chaos. Talking, Yammering. Asking. Asking and throwing in the obligatory 'that's what she said' when I said I wanted to go in. Of course, that led to the topic of pegging, and it was then that I knew I had had enough.

It was time to pick my battles, so I gave them the quick, PG rated, run down. I told them about dinner, the bird and that last night was amazing, beautiful and that dolphins waved at us as we were driving past the marina.

Charlotte got really excited about that, but then proceeded to tell me that actually, we probably saw porpoises instead of dolphins and that there was a difference.

I didn't fucking care. All I wanted to do was go find Edward and find out his thoughts on piercings.

**For those of you who are interested, Coach K is the basketball coach over at Duke University and is disliked by everyone at UNC.**


	15. I'm on a Boat

**Welcome Back! We hope you all enjoyed yesterdays unexpected update. Not much to say with today's update. CPW has discovered Pumpkin Pie Ice Cream and Risbee has discovered 'A Thousand Leaves' by Bella Sunshine. Read it. It's excellent.**

**We don't own Twilight; We do own 'Lazer!**

**Chapter Song: I'm on a Boat by the Lonely Island (side note: this song is CPW's ring tone)**

**BPOV**

"So…I talked to Daddy last night," Kate declared as she plopped herself down on a chair on the front deck and stopped, waiting for all of us to look up from whatever we were doing to hear her announcement.

I groaned and buried my head into Edward's chest because really, nothing ever good came from Kate talking to her dad. In fact, usually the only thing that came from conversations with her dad was tears, so her giant smile admittedly made me a bit curious. Especially when I realized that it wouldn't necessarily be me or Charlotte that had to comfort her. We'd gladly given that chore over to Garrett.

"Anyway, like I said, I talked to Daddy last night and there has been a slight change in plans today. He called the marina and is having the boat prepped for us and told me where he hid the keys." She paused only for a second to look over at Garrett. "Sorry baby, I can't tell you where. Apparently he doesn't trust Tanya to drive it, which makes perfect since to me since she's…"

Garrett's throat clearing apparently reminded Kate that Tanya was still his sister, no matter what she thought of her personally, and she quickly changed directions to something a little less vicious, "…since she's um…not as experienced as I am."

I nearly choked on my coffee and avoided making eye contact with anybody else.

Must. Resist. Obvious. Joke.

Especially if I wanted to get on that boat, and by all means, I wanted on that boat.

Eleazar's boat was the stuff of legends. Okay, so maybe that was a slight exaggeration since it didn't have a staff and he _was_ letting his daughter and her friends take it out unaccompanied, but still, it was really freakin' nice. Admittedly, I didn't know too much about boats except that they were fun to ride on, but I could look at it and tell that it was something to be impressed with.

"What did he decide on naming it, Kate?" I asked, genuinely interested. The last I had heard, he had a page long list of possibilities, each one more ridiculous and pompous than the last. He wanted the perfect name, one that fitted both his personality and the prestige of the sailboat, and spent months debating what to call her.

Kate mumbled something and I know I didn't hear her right. Please Lord; tell me I didn't hear her right because suddenly, getting on the boat didn't seem so appealing.

Nah, there was no way. He was an educated, albeit a bit slimy, man who changed wives like some people changed underwear…and yeah, maybe his current wife was half his age, but at least he wasn't like that actor from Lost who was in his fifties and married the 16 year old. I mean, how completely nasty…

But anyway, I was getting distracted…there was no way that a grown man named his boat something so stupid.

"Shut the fuck up. 'Lazer named the boat _Passing Wind_?" Garrett started howling and rolling on the floor like a tickle me Elmo. He was turning just as red too, probably because he couldn't breathe. "You're kidding right? Why didn't he just call it 'the trouser trumpet' or 'anal salute'?"

Kate looked at him with utter contempt on her face and for a split second, I was worried that we'd go back to the fights and constant bickering, but she just threw a pillow at him and waited for him to get it out of his system.

Edward leaned over to me and whispered, "Did Garrett just call Kate's dad Lazer?" Again, must resist eye contact. I nodded, while tracing the crown molding along the ceiling with my eyes.

"That's what Tanya calls him. He asked me to call him Eleazer the day I met him, back when Kate and I were moving out of the dorms, but this whole Lazer thing is a fairly recent development." Of course, so was the ultra-white teeth and tanning sessions, and the new twenty-something wife. Methinks somebody is in the midst of a mid-life crisis.

Which made Passing Wind all that much worse. Garrett was still lying on the floor, but at least the hysterics had slowed down to an occasional guffaw or snort.

"So, Kate. What's the plan then? When do we go? What do we need to do?"

"Well, if we want to spend all day on the water, we should probably bring some food with us. That way, we don't have to worry about keeping too close to the marina. We can even sleep on the boat if you want, though I'm not completely sure what the sleeping arrangements are like on board and there is a chance of thunderstorms again tonight."

I looked at Charlotte who was sitting on Peter's lap and made a mental note to lock my bedroom door tonight just in case.

We made arrangements to be ready to go in an hour. Charlotte volunteered to get lunch put together since she was already in her swimsuit and didn't need to do anything else to get ready. She and Peter were going to go try and rent some kayaks for the day, but decided to do that another day instead. That was probably for the best since I was having considerable trouble picturing her steering a kayak on her own. The girl had trouble getting off the top of a set of bunk beds. She didn't need to be wielding an oar alone and there was no way she could stay balanced in a kayak either.

Edward and Garrett went to the garage to see if they could find extra life jackets since Kate wasn't sure if there were enough onboard the Passing…ugh, I couldn't even bring myself to think about the name. The PW. "He seriously named it that?" I couldn't help but ask Kate as we were walking to go meet them in the garage after getting everything ready to go.

"Don't even get me started. Apparently mom's boyfriend at the time had the last name Wynd and dad thought it would bother her or something. I swear, the older they get, the more childish they get. I mean, you should see the number of Ed Hardy t-shirts the man has in his closet. At least I haven't seen any little blue pills because that is something that I don't ever, _ever_ want to think about. I mean, it's bad enough that he married Beach Bingo Barbie, but…"

"Hey Edward!" I yelled with just a little bit too much enthusiasm as we rounded the corner and saw the boys. I didn't want Kate to get in trouble with Garrett by demeaning his sister, yet again, so I shot her a look that said we'd talk later.

She didn't miss a beat. "Anyway, he thought it would make me happy since I haven't had the best summer ever…and since he doesn't exactly know that Garrett and I are getting along, well…" She swatted Garrett's ass as we walked past them and out to the car to put our bags in the back and he pulled her ponytail. And to think, she called Edward and me sickening. Ha.

"Getting along? Is that what we're calling it?"

"Shut up. I mean, what else should I call it. We haven't had the relationship convo and my dad is married to his sister, so we have _that_ going for us." She rolled her eyes and sighed. "And we go back to school in a few weeks. Have you and Edward talked about it at all? What are you two going to do, because I've seen the way you look at each other, and you two are more than just 'getting along'."

"We haven't really talked about it either," and that worried me more than I was allowing myself to admit. I knew we had to face it at some point, but honestly, UNC and Wake Forest weren't that far apart, so I wasn't really worried. We both had cars and were living in apartments, so I guess the biggest question was if he wanted to continue this beyond it being just a summer fling.

Suddenly, two arms wrapped around my waist and spun me around. This time, when our eyes met, it was her expression that said 'we'd continue the conversation later.' I had missed my best friend.

"Everything okay?" Edward murmured into my ear as he nuzzled into my neck. He smelled like sea air and sunscreen and it was all I could do to not rip the t-shirt off his body. I'd appreciated it before, but now that I knew how he could make me feel…Jesus fuck, if our night at the B&B was any indication, when we finally had the time for quality over quantity, I might not survive. I shivered in his arms and jumped up; wrapping my legs around his waist hoping that he wouldn't drop me. Who was I kidding; I knew he'd never let me fall.

"Everything is just fine. Kate and I were just talking and catching up. We've both been a bit preoccupied lately." I squeezed his body with my legs almost catching the moan that escaped my lips, but not quite and he smirked, which of course, caused me to blush. Thankfully the little bit of color I'd managed to get this summer helped hide the fact that I was glowing like a channel marker.

"Think anybody would notice if we snuck upstairs for a quickie?"

I liked the way he was thinking, but Charlotte and Peter emerged from the house, with a giant picnic basket and cooler, locking the door behind them. "Let's go kiddos. We have lunches, drinks and a boat in our future."

"Hey Peter…let me see your shirt." He turned around and all it said was 'I love sweet corn'. For some reason, it made me giggle and I completely approved. He and Charlotte were absolutely, one hundred percent, completely perfect for each other. They didn't seem worried about what was going to happen in a few weeks, and if the 'smart peeps' weren't worried, then I wasn't either.

We got to the marina and found Eleazer's boat easily. After we loaded up and watched the boat safety video that he had emailed Kate, we were all set. Thank goodness Kate and Garrett knew what they were doing though, because aside from a few fishing trips with my dad, I was a complete novice. I could handle an outboard motor with the best of them, but this whole sailboat thing was a bit beyond my abilities.

Which meant all I could do was sit in the sun and enjoy the ride.

Poor, poor me.

Once we got out of the no wake zone and out in the open water, I couldn't imagine anything better. Well, I could, but nothing I'd want to share with my friends. Edward and Peter were talking to Garrett as he showed them how the various pulleys and ropes and whatever else operated the sails and Kate paid attention to the depth chart and GPS, while steering us through fairly calm waters.

Charlotte plopped down beside me holding on to the picnic basket with what could only be described as a death grip. She looked a little pale, ironic I know, coming from me, or maybe she was a little green as I heard her groan and lean back against the rail, still staying completely rigid. "Why do I feel like I've been drinking?"

Ahhhh, somebody didn't have her sea legs. "Don't worry Char, you'll be fine in a bit. Besides, Cape Lookout isn't very far." We were heading that way for the day because Kate had some sort of nostalgia for playing on the sandbars and deserted beaches as a child. It was sort of cute the way her eyes lit up and you could just see her relax the second she set foot on the PW.

I scanned the horizon looking for something, anything to distract Charlotte. Porpoises, fish or blobs of seaweed…anything. That's when I saw them. Wild horses. I had forgotten about Shackleford Banks and I jumped up and ran over to the other side of the boat and leaned out over the water, straining to see them. They were absolutely beautiful and there was something fascinating about the fact that they were descendants of horses that had come over with the explorers. Was it completely hokey that I wanted to be on the beach and run with them, the wind going through my hair like I was one of them?

"Yes, yes it is completely hokey, Swan."

Apparently I said that out loud and Edward laughed as he leaned over the rail beside me. We stood there and watched as they grazed on the sea grass and plants that grew on the beach. It was romantic and beautiful and I couldn't imagine anything that would ruin the day.

Until I heard Charlotte mention something about smoked tofu and kale sandwiches.

Somebody was going to have to have an intervention. The girl needed to think before she packed a picnic for her meat loving friends.

EPOV

We were out on the open water, and Bella was wearing my favorite teeny tiny bikini, which made me want to do _very_ bad things to her. If our friends were not around I would take her on every available surface – port, starboard, the table down below, you name it. However, we also wouldn't be sailing very well since I knew nothing about it, except for to sit back and enjoy while other people did the hard work.

"Lookie at what I found," Garrett declared as he came up from below with a captain's hat on his head, looking a bit like the skipper from Gilligan's Island.

"You look like a douche," Peter declared as Charlotte sat beside him, playing with the ends of his hair and staring off into space.

"You're just jealous. I got the hottest chick and the sweetest hat," Garrett declared as I broke out into laughter and he stared at me like I was on fire or something. "What, dude?"

"You wouldn't have looked twice at Kate if you guys hadn't been the fifth and sixth wheels, am I right?"

"No," Garrett defended as he looked to make sure that Kate was out of earshot and moved closer to me, whispering slowly. "I've had my eye on her for a while, since before the wedding, but she just needed to warm up to me a bit."

"You mean she needed to see you weren't a total asshole?" Peter chimed in as I looked up and noticed Bella and Kate coming towards the back of the boat where we were all seated.

"What are we missing out on?" Bella questioned, as she sat down on the bench beside me and wrapped her arm around my waist.

"Garrett was telling us about how you like it doggy style," Charlotte suddenly blurted out unexpectedly.

"What the fuck, Char?" Garrett shouted as Kate stormed over and slapped Garrett upside the head.

"Is nothing sacred anymore?" Kate shouted angrily as Garrett held up his hands in self-defense. "How would you feel if I told everyone you loved ass play?"

"Oh come on, this is such an over share people. We don't want to hear this shit," Peter shouted as I covered Bella's ears with my hands and she swiftly pulled them off.

"I want to hear this," she declared before whispering at me. "Do you think you would like ass play?"

"Okay, no more," Garrett yelled. "Kate does not like it doggy style, I don't like a finger up my ass and none of you heard anything here right now. If I had one of those flashy thingies from Men in Black I would erase all your memories of the last five minutes. Now, we're going to drop anchor in a few minutes and enjoy the tasty lunch Charlotte made us."

"Tasty is stretching it," Bella mumbled as I looked at her in surprise, wanting to know more. Of course we were so in tune with one another she was able to answer my questioning eyes immediately. "She's a vegan; do you think she would make us bologna sandwiches or something? Think again."

My stomach groaned as I looked down the small stairs that led underneath the sailboat. Surely if Lazer had the boat prepped he would have them add something edible, right?

"When they drop anchor, let's sneak downstairs for a minute," I said quietly as Bella licked her lips and smiled at me. "Not for a quickie, to scour the cabinets and mini fridge for some food. I can't eat tofu and bean sprouts and shit. I'm a growing man." Bella giggled and then began to palm my swim trunks as I pulled back from her and grabbed her hand. Ever since we had returned from our night in Beaufort she had been insatiable, and I wasn't complaining but even 'lil Edward needed a bit of rest every now and again. "Relax, Bells. When we get back on land, baby, I promise."

"I'll hold you to that, Edward."

We sat back for a while as Kate and Garrett sailed the boat into a little cove and anchored the boat. The moment they got busy with the anchor, I grabbed Bella's hand and pulled her down into the bottom of the boat. Peter and Charlotte didn't even notice we had left because they were too busy making out like banshees. It was disturbing how much they had swapped saliva in the past few days.

"Oh look, they have crackers," Bella said happily as she pulled out a box of Ritz crackers and thrust it towards me. I checked the expiry date and smiled from ear to ear when I saw the box was unopened. "And cheese in a can."

"Yuck, I'll pass on that one, but there are some sodas in here and some real cheeses. There's also some carrots, a cucumber and… jackpot… chicken!"

"How is there chicken on this boat?"

"Kate's dad had the boat prepped. Obviously that meant including food. Maybe her dad didn't think she would be smart enough to bring real food, so he made sure it was completely stocked."

"Awesome, there's beer!"

Suddenly, our little ransacking job was cut short as Garrett stumbled down the stairs and looked at us with fury in his eyes. "Charlotte brought lunch, what are you doing?"

"Do you want to eat tofu and kale sandwiches?" Bella questioned as Garrett wrinkled his nose at us.

"Are you serious?"

"Do you like a finger up your ass during sex?" Bella chimed in with a huge laugh as I couldn't help but join in. Garrett continued to look at us like he wanted to throw us off the boat and sail away.

"Well, don't eat all the food. I won't touch anything Char made." I couldn't help but laugh when I noticed that Garrett hadn't answered the question and instead headed back on top of the boat and began questioning Char on what she made for lunch.

Feeling generous, we made a platter of food from what we found and brought it up for everyone else to share, though we insisted Charlotte had to eat what she brought. It was great to just sit around on the boat, the six of us enjoying the warm weather and slight winds as we enjoyed some casual conversation and reminisced about things that had conspired over the summer thus far.

Of course, the entire scene made me wistful again. Ever since Beaufort, I had been wondering what would happen after summer break was over. Would she still want to see me? Could we make it work even if there was a short distance between us and we both had the overwhelming work of our senior year ahead of us? I didn't want to stop what was going on between us, but I wasn't sure how Bella felt about it all.

However, I never found the right time to address it with her, and now definitely wasn't the time.

"We're going to go downstairs and clean up," Kate explained as she grabbed Garrett's hand and pulled him with her. He took the empty platter with him and Bella and I stared off at the ocean together as Peter and Charlotte, once again, began making out and making goo-goo eyes at each other.

"So…tonight?" Bella questioned as her fingers danced lightly on my arm. "I hope you won't be too tired."

"I think I can handle you, baby."

"Are you sure? I know I've been working you a bit more than usual." Bella winked as I wrapped my arm around her shoulder and kissed her temple. "Quantity over quality, right?"

"We'll get to the quality soon, I promise," I replied as Bella smiled brightly and I kissed her again, deepening the kiss briefly, until a loud noise from down below the boat surprised us. "What was that?"

"Oh fuck, Garrett," we heard Kate moan as the four of us stopped what we were doing and looked at each other in mortification.

"No, no, no…." Bella began chanting as we heard something break and then Garrett let out a loud grunt.

"Jesus fuck, you'd think they could close the damn door," Peter said, his voice sounding just as disturbed as I knew I was.

"Oh stud muffin," Kate added as we all broke out into fits of giggles, but they clearly didn't hear us and Kate and Garrett certainly didn't stop. "G-money, you're dick is magical baby." More snorts of laughter filled the air and I mouthed 'G-Money' to Bella, she just shrugged her shoulders and began crying because she was laughing so hard.

Speaking of hard…

"Take it, Katie… take it," Garrett growled as Peter suggested one of us go close the door, but no one wanted to take the chance of seeing Garrett's pasty ass plowing into Kate, so we decided to move towards the bow of the boat, hoping we would hear less. Anything would be better than the porn we were basically forced to listen to at that moment.

Unfortunately, it wasn't any better there, sitting awkwardly at the bow, Peter and I with our arms wrapped around our ladies, trying to keep all of us steady.

"Oh gawd, Cookie Monster…make me cum."

"This is bloody ridiculous," Charlotte shouted as she moved to the back of the boat and we watched in awe as she climbed down the stairs and reached to shut the door. Suddenly she stilled and we heard the door slam. "Oh my god, my eyes, my eyes. I'll never be able to unsee that!"

"What?" Bella asked, curiously.

"Her finger was up his ass!"


	16. One and Only

**If this story was real, this chapter would have our six characters evacuating the hurricane, since Irene made landfall at Cape Lookout, NC, which is extremely close to Emerald Isle, where our story is set.**

**We don't own Twilight; **Our hearts go out to those in the path of Hurricane Irene and we hope they remain safe.****

**Chapter Song: One and Only by Adele  
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**BPOV**

The mood around the house was unmistakably somber considering how silly and rambunctious I knew all six of us could be.

Charlotte was looking at the pictures on her camera, Kate was putting cushions back out on the deck furniture after yet another mid-day summer storm, and I was in the kitchen taking inventory so the boys could make a final run to the ABC store.

Final.

I hated that word.

A few days ago, we were on a boat without a care in the world. Now all I could think about was how it was almost over. We were supposed to leave tomorrow. Tomorrow. Less than 24 hours from now. I felt sick to my stomach.

I knew that I said that I wasn't worried about what was going to happen between Edward and me after the summer…and I wasn't. Except that I was. Never in my wildest dreams did I expect something like this would happen between this summer. Ahhhh, Edward.

I didn't even know he existed until the day we met, but now I can't imagine him not being in my life and a part of me felt pretty certain that he felt the same way. I had seen glimpses in his eyes or in the way he looked at me when he didn't know I was watching. Our night in Beaufort though, when he massaged my achy feet, that was when I knew, or thought I knew. Hell, I didn't know, or did I?

I couldn't help the half-hearted laugh that escaped as I realized how completely ridiculous that sounded, but it was true. All too soon I wouldn't be able to find him in the next room, tease him about his hiccups or wake up with him in my bed. He'd be somewhere else, somewhere I wasn't, and I hated that. It made my heart hurt.

"Get out of your head, Bellaboo. I plan on having a good time tonight and I don't need you bringing the party down." Kate appeared beside me, grabbing the list from my hand and adding a few things to the list.

"Everclear? I don't think they sell that anymore," I replied as I shuddered, remembering a previous experience with the stuff. I hadn't touched it since the fateful night I threw up on my date's shoes in a parking lot, but then again, my taste had come a long way since freshman year when I was ID-less and I was at the mercy of the over-21s.

"I think they sell it in hardware stores actually, as a solvent. No lie. There's one in the same shopping center. I'll get Garrett to look. Like I said, I plan on having a good time tonight and I'm not gonna let any of this," she waved her hands in my direction, "depressing shit get in my head."

We stood there in silence for a bit, adding to the liquor list and starting on the grocery list of our barbecue needs. Charlotte came over from her perch on the couch and the three of us stood side by side just staring into the pantry, none of us saying a word, because nobody wanted to talk about what we were all thinking about, as much as we didn't want to think about it. It was the gigantic pink elephant in the room.

I don't know how long we stood there staring at nothing, but it seemed like a really long, long time.

"Fuck this." I turned in shock and looked at Charlotte, because while she certainly wasn't a prude, it was rare for her to just bust out with the random f-bomb.

"You okay, doll?" I asked, knowing the answer to the question before she even responded. She nodded her head in the affirmative even while she verbally answered no and that was the trip wire that set us off. Suddenly, all three of us were sitting on the floor of the kitchen with tears, but I honestly couldn't tell you if they were of sadness or of laughter.

My best guess was that they were a little bit of both.

Eventually though, the tears stopped, but we stayed on the floor, talking about things that had happened over the past weeks. The last thing I would have predicted that first chaotic afternoon was that three girls would meet three boys, all of them drastically different in personality, and nobody would end up in the Emergency Room. In fact, I was so convinced that I had the number to the nearest Urgent Care on my phone's speed dial.

Only when we realized that the rest of the house was suspiciously quiet did our conversation stop, and we all looked over to find our own version of the Three Stooges standing just outside the sliding glass door staring at us and looking at us like we had completely lost our minds.

Nope. Just our hearts. Even Kate.

As if she could read my mind, Kate extracted herself from our pile on the floor, causing me to not so gracefully bang my head on the floor. Note to self, add mop to grocery list because the floor was utterly disgusting. Even with the maid service that 'Lazer had coming in here on a weekly basis, the guys were friggin pigs.

Ew.

"Are you okay?" Kate asked, pretending to care as she wrapped herself around Garrett and clung to him like Velcro. He started whispering into her ear before he began running his fingers through her hair and down her back.

Peter and Edward walked into the house, all sweaty and sandy from their boy time on the beach, and helped Charlotte and me up from the floor. I was still watching Kate and Garrett in amazement and Edward teased me a bit about voyeuristic tendencies.

"Watch it buddy, or one night my webcam might suddenly be 'broken'," I did the obnoxious finger quote thing that I hate so much and his eyes widened.

"You wouldn't!" He stumbled back a bit, clutching at his heart and I nodded solemnly.

"Just try me."

"Isn't there something in the Constitution about cruel and unusual punishment?" I shrugged and went back to the grocery list because I couldn't lie worth a damn and the best thing I could do at this point was change the subject, but Edward wasn't having it.

"You aren't joking about the webcam, are you? You do really have one right? Because, well…"

Damn it. I gripped the countertop and refused to look at him, the words on the list getting blurry from the tears I refused to let fall and I just nodded because I knew that if I opened my mouth to respond, I wouldn't be able to do anything but squeak.

"That's all I needed to know." He moved to stand directly behind me, our bodies flush together from ankle to the tops of my shoulders and I gathered strength from the way we fit together. I was so not planning on this...falling in love with him...happening, but it did and it was almost over and I needed to get out of this house before I just crawled into a closet and decided to never, ever leave. I was turning into the queen of denial and tomorrow was looming over my head.

Looking around, Peter and Charlotte had returned to the camera, quietly laughing at something on the screen and I had no idea where Kate and Garrett had gone. We had so many things to do to get ready for tonight and nobody seemed to want to do it. So, I made an executive decision because I was so authoritative and in charge like that.

"Cullen," I snapped, because we were going to have fun tonight damn it. We were.

"Yes ma'am!" He grinned and saluted after he had moved in front of me. He looked like the dork I had grown to love over the past several weeks.

"You…go shower off. Meet me downstairs. Charlotte…you and Peter do…something and tell Kate and Garrett to help. Stop laughing at me." I shrugged and grinned and couldn't help but start laughing at myself but really, moping around like a bunch of lumps wasn't doing anybody any good and if we wanted to have a good time tonight, then we needed to get moving.

Edward met me in the garage, still smelling like sunscreen, but without the sand and sweat, and I waved the grocery list in front of him. It felt a bit ridiculous to be going grocery shopping when we were leaving the next day, but we needed a few things for dinner, and a whole lot of cleaning supplies. Sure Kate's dad had a cleaning service scheduled to come in, but I had been raised to leave a place in a better condition than I arrived and those boys were completely disgusting.

Yes, even Edward had his flaws.

We raced up and down the aisles with our squeaky wheeled carts, being completely obnoxious and earning more than a few rolled eyes, but I didn't care. At one point, Edward ended up riding in the cart, arms and legs sprawled over the sides because he was so tall and lanky, and he was using the mop as a pretend oar. He took up so much space that it was hard to find room for the few things we really did need to buy, but I found places for everything.

And no, we did not hit the ABC store on the way. That was our second stop, and why I needed Edward to go with me since my ID, while adequate for the few restaurants and bars we had visited, wasn't _that_ good.

Unlike our grocery list, the list for this stop was massive since we figured that whatever didn't get finished off we could just divvy up and take back to school with us. It took Edward three trips to the car and back to get everything. Thank goodness for the elevator otherwise we were going to be eating in the garage.

Once everything had been moved inside and unpacked, Edward and I decided to go for a quick walk on the beach.

We met Kate and Garrett on the beach where they had set up chairs to establish our territory, so to speak. The plan was to have a small, yet still impressive, bonfire type thing, well as much as we could get away with and assuming the winds cooperated. With the recent wildfires that had plagued the NC coast all summer, we needed to be really careful.

Eh, I would be happy with a few candles on the floor inside. I just wanted to spend the evening with my friends and forget that tomorrow, reality was going to slap us full force in the face.

"This looks really great, y'all," I said, grinning at my use of 'y'all'. Every time I went back to Washington, people made fun of my newly acquired 'accent', which was funny considering everybody at school said_ I_ talked funny.

I was really glad they took my 'do something' instructions to heart. There were chairs and towels all arranged, and coolers were full of ice and bottles of Gatorade...the beer was hidden underneath and there were beer cozies and cups so we could be 'discreet.' If there was any beach patrol, you were good as long as you didn't flaunt the fact that you were drinking.

We weren't stupid.

Once the beach cleared out a bit, we'd be able to spread out a bit more and maybe turn up the music a little bit louder. We wanted to be away from the house and the deck as much as possible, sort of wrap ourselves up in this little bubble where there were as few distractions as possible and we were all together to just relive the summer and make the most of the time we had left.

That didn't mean though, that alone time was prohibited, because Edward and I were most definitely going to get our alone time…

**EPOV**

The party was in full swing, we had all eaten our fair share of burgers, hot dogs and even Charlotte chowed down on two tofu burgers. I thought it was rather inventive, and economical, of us to try and eat our way through the food in the fridge before we left. It would be a major waste to throw it out the next day.

Ah...the next day. The only thing currently weighing on me and ruining my evening.

Bella had been uncharacteristically quiet in the morning and then she seemed to have some sort of change of heart, and was bound and determined to see everyone have a wonderful final night at the beach. Of course, all I wanted to do was corner her somewhere quiet and figure out what would happen after tomorrow.

I may have had fears, primarily because we were both avoiding the topic, about the future. I wanted her in my life, in whatever way she was willing, but did she feel the same? From the way she looked at me, I could assume so, but you know what they say about people assuming, right?

I had done all the calculations in my head – how long it would take to drive from UNC to Wake Forest, how much I could afford in phone calls each month and how often we could feasibly see each other. I had all the arguments covered, I just had to get in front of Bella and plead my case. However, I was hoping none of this was necessary and that she would agree wholeheartedly and after we graduated, we'd live happily ever after and all that shit.

"Edward, did you bring the marshmallows?" asked Bella as she fidgeted on my lap and I sucked in a breath while willing my cock to go down.

"Yeah, they are in the bag behind my chair. I think the sticks are over on the deck though." Garrett offered to get them since he was heading back into the house, but then Charlotte came down from the desk with them in her hand as Bella reached behind me, her breasts pressed against my chest firmly, as she kissed my cheek before lifting the bag onto her lap. "You are evil."

"You love it," she giggled as I brushed a few stray hairs behind her ear and kissed her temple.

"More than anything," I replied without regret, as Bella's eyes grew large and we stared at each other for what seemed like a long time. I wanted her to understand how I felt, but she just seemed to be confused. Thankfully, Charlotte interrupted us by dropping the fancy marshmallow roasting forks that Lazer had ordered from Bed, Bath and Beyond, or some shit like that, onto Bella's lap. Lord knows, Lazer couldn't just use regular sticks to roast marshmallows, could he? Nothing but the best for this guy.

"Thanks, Char," Bella replied as Garrett suddenly showed up on the deck dressed in nothing but a towel. God, I had wondered where he had gotten to in the last hour. The sun had faded and the flames from our bonfire lit up the sky, but Garrett made enough noise to make it sound like there were thirty of us on the beach, not six.

"I'm going skinny dipping. It's my last hurrah," Garrett declared as he stepped out onto the beach and dropped his towel, running awkwardly towards the ocean. "Who's coming with me?"

I was shocked when Charlotte stood up from her chair and pulled off her clothes, screaming out something I couldn't understand, and chasing Garrett. Within seconds, Peter and Kate had joined them both, as Bella and I remained nestled in our chair.

"Peter has a seriously pasty ass, but I'm baffled as to why Garrett's is so tan," Bella remarked as her arms snaked around my neck, holding me close.

"Do you remember the day you girls went into town for some final souvenirs?" I asked as Bella simply nodded her head. "Well, Peter and I were attempting to do some laundry and when we came out, we found Garrett buck naked lying on a deck chair on his stomach while reading Maxim."

"Ewww... which chair?"

"The long one that currently has no cushions on it," I said with a laugh while Bella cringed and became stiff in my arms. "Oh don't worry. The cushions were washed and we made Garrett scrub the entire chair before you girls got back. However, that's all besides the point to me. Why were you looking at their asses?"

"Better their ass than their junk, right?" Bella questioned with a sly grin as I shrugged my shoulder. Yeah, I guess she was right. "You know, now that we have a few minutes of peace and quiet, it would be a great chance to slip away." I had to fight back a laugh as Bella waggled her eyebrows. Subtlety was not her style.

"Let's go," I replied as our friends played unabashedly in the surf, the moon lighting their stupidity, as we climbed up the stairs to the deck and slipped inside the house quietly.

As we walked up the stairs to her room, our fingers were interlaced and it seemed like we were both holding on tightly, like we had a death grip on the other. Bella's door was wide open, so we walked inside and I locked the door tightly behind us, before I eased my arm around her waist and began kissing the bare skin of her shoulders.

"We need to talk," Bella mumbled quietly as my body froze. Those words were never good. Never fucking good. "It's not bad, though. Well, I don't think it's bad."

"Wow, way to ease a guy into breaking up with him," I stammered, the frustration clear in my voice as I backed away from Bella and she turned, looking at me with shock clear on her eyes.

"I'm not breaking up with you," she replied simply. "Did you want to break up with me?"

"Fuck no," I stated firmly as a look of relief crossed her face. "I've spent the last two weeks trying to figure out how to make us work even though we will be apart."

"It's not like you go to Duke or something stupid like that," Bella rationalized as she sat down on the edge of the bed and I sat beside her, my hand reaching out and gripping hers. Fuck, we were really horrible at this emotional shit. We could do the friend thing with ease. Hell...romance came even easier, though it took a while for us to get physical, but now that we had crossed that line in our relationship, we were fucking awesome together. However, talking about our emotions...we were morons.

"You're an hour away from me, right?" Bella nodded shyly. "We can take turns driving to the others campus. Maybe every other weekend we can alternate or something."

"Every weekend?" Bella asked, her voice sounding so hopeful and excited.

"We can play it by ear, I suppose," I said with kiss to her temple.

"You can be with your friends during the week and focused on schoolwork and all that shit. On the weekends, you can come to me, or vice versa. I'd love to show you Wake and I'd love to see UNC and Chapel Hill."

"I can't believe you've never been to Chapel Hill, though maybe I should be glad you haven't had a reason to before now. Oh my god, there are so many things we can do!"

I smirked as Bella continued on telling me about the music scene, all the bands she had fallen in love with since arriving for college. My eyes grew wide and my smile grew huge. It was so cute to see her so excited and I wanted to be a part of it. Too bad it was too late to transfer to UNC for the fall semester.

"Oh, and obviously we'll go have Blue Cups at He's Not, and Top of the Hill, and Bubs, and there really isn't anything better than sprawling out on a blanket in the upper quad on a sunny day to just veg. We can go to Breadmans for breakfast, and Peppers and I can try and get us tickets to a basketball game - but not when we play you guys. That would just be uncomfortable because I tend to get a little bit excited during the games and, well, I obviously wouldn't be so happy if you won." She paused before grinning and whispering, "Not that your Deacs would be able to beat us."

"You are absolutely adorable and a little misguided, since our team is ten times better than yours, just saying."

"Give it up. We will kick your asses." I grinned and leaned in, kissing her sweetly on the lips as we both sighed. "Part of me still can't believe you're real."

"What's not to believe?" I asked, somewhat confused as I watched a blush creep up on Bella's sunkissed cheeks.

"Doesn't this all feel surreal to you? Ending up here for the summer and falling...for some random housemate?" I could hear the hesitation in her voice as she paused, unsure how to say what I knew she wanted to say.

"No, it feels very real to me. I came on vacation, hoping to have a fun time with my friends and just enjoy myself, and instead I fell in love with the most beautiful girl," I said sincerely and I heard Bella gasp quietly as my fingers stroked her cheeks. "I am totally, and completely, head over heels in love with you."

Bella was speechless for the first time since we walked in the room, and though I wanted to hear her tell me she loved me, I had faith not to push her. However, when she grabbed the back of my neck and pulled me down to her for a searing kiss, her actions told me everything I wanted to know. I knew she felt the same.

Within seconds I was rolling us onto her bed, my body hovered above hers as I slipped the straps of her dress down her smooth shoulders. My mouth didn't hesitate and latched immediately onto one of her pert nipples as Bella's hands threaded through my hair and she moaned softly, causing my cock to stiffen. I lathed attention on both of her breasts, now proud that I knew how sensitive Bella was there.

"Oh god," she purred as I kneeled back and shimmied the rest of her dress off of her, before leaning back down to kiss across her stomach gently. "I'm going to miss this, so fucking much."

"We'll just have to switch to quality, baby," I replied as my teeth gripped onto the waistband of her tiny blue thong and I pulled it from her excitedly. A writhing and eager Bella was a sight to behold. Her hair was lying across the pillow, her cheeks flush and her breasts heaving. The sweet noises coming from her made it all the more difficult to not rush and simply push inside of her. I quickly undressed and climbed back into bed, pulling the sheets over us since it seemed like someone had turned the air conditioning on arctic.

My fingers teased her as I felt her hand wrap around my shaft and it didn't take long before we were both so close to the edge of release that slipping inside of her set us both off. Bella was a picture of perfection, her voice slightly hoarse from moaning as she grabbed my face and kissed me hard and fast.

"I love you too, Edward," she said fiercely as I let out a small sigh of relief and kissed her once more. I still couldn't believe I had fallen in love with the most beautiful, charming and sexy girl in the world, in just two months. How did I get so lucky?

For the rest of the night, it seemed like Bella and I were one. When we weren't making love, we were holding hands, lying together and discussing the future. Sure, it seemed like we were moving a bit too fast, but when you know it's right...you don't want to wait. It's like that line from _When Harry Met Sally_, which Charlotte had made us watch a few days ago, 'When you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.'

As far as I was concerned, our senior year was just a test, a stepping stone of sorts, to see if Bella and I were truly meant to be. After we graduated, I knew whatever we did, we would be doing it together.


	17. One Leap

**Yes, we are back again. Can you believe this little summer journey is almost over? We can't either :) 3 more chapters and an epilogue after this one. Enjoy! :)**

**We don't own Twilight; insert sad faces here.  
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**Chapter song: One Leap by Joshua Radin**

**BPOV**

One little secret about me - when I get sad, I get mean and hateful. I say things that I most definitely don't ever mean. You should hear the things I say when my beloved Tarheels lose to that 'other team'. I don't even care if they lose at fucking ping pong. I don't take it well.

Today is much, much worse than any loss could ever be. Nothing like waking up feeling like somebody was wrenching my heart out of my chest, stomping on it and then taking the cure 1.5 hours away.

I muttered several choice words under my breath as I realized that it had started to get light outside. I refused to open my eyes, but I could hear the birds and I could see the faint hint of pink light through my eyelids.

"Fucking sun. Fucking Sunday. Fucking fuck, fuck, fuck!" I half muttered, half yelled because I didn't want to acknowledge that today was really here. I didn't want to burst my bubble of bliss; I liked it here with the warmth of Edward beside me.

Cue the fucking tears.

No. Fuck that. I wasn't going to do this. Edward lived in Winston, not Zimbabwe. I could meet him for dinner any random Tuesday night I wanted and be back in time for class on Wednesday, because let's face it, dinner with Edward would _always_ include dessert.

I made a mental note to drop my 9:00 class and pick up something a bit later in the day. You know, just in case.

"Fuck."

"Thirty-seven."

"Thirty-seven?" I answered as I felt warm arms wrap around my body. He was warm and sleepy and slow and I melted into him, relishing our last few minutes together before we had to face the inevitable.

The mattress was vibrating with a mixture of his chuckles and his moans as I let my hand trace down his body to a part of him that seemed more awake than the rest. "Mmm." His hips moved a bit forward, letting me know that he approved. "You've said 'Fuck' thirty-seven times since I started counting, which was when I woke up. Talk to yourself a lot, do you?"

His hair was all, well, typical and his eyelids were still droopy as he reached up and started running his fingers along the sides of my face, down my neck and tracing my shoulders. Slowly, over and over again, movements subtle and gentle, matching my own pace. I merely shrugged before leaning forward and captured his mouth with my own. I didn't feel like talking right now, though I did have a lot to say.

Edward got the hint and the next thirty minutes were spent in silence. Well, until he shakily whispered 'thirty-eight' in my ear.

The thumping and clanking of real life started to intrude not long after that and I knew it was time. We showered quickly and went to our respective rooms to gather the last of our things. I threw most of my clothes haphazardly in my bags, since I would just end up throwing them in the laundry when I got home anyway. I started making a list of things I needed to do because I knew that if I let myself think, I'd wallow.

Laundry, grocery shopping, student store. I needed to go to the DMV to change the address on my license. Back to Davis Library to let them know I was back and could start working again.

The key was to keep busy. Busy, busy, busy, and not pay any attention to the clock or the calendar or anything that made me aware of where I was and where I wasn't.

I looked around my, no our, empty room. The sheets stripped and tossed in the corner for the cleaning service and one of Edward's WFU shirts was clutched in my hands, because it was absolutely going home with me. I moved my bags out into the hallway and stood in the doorway looking, remembering, thankful for everything.

Closing my eyes, I pulled the door closed behind me. It was time.

Downstairs, things were crazy. Charlotte and Peter were searching the cushions in the living room and when I asked them what they were looking for, the looks on their faces made me realize that I probably didn't want to know. God, they were so completely perfect for each other it was almost a little scary. Even Kate and Garrett fit together in a way that was both logical and completely wrong at the same time.

Then there was me and Edward. Edward and me. Edward and I. Who the hell knows, that's why I was an art major…there weren't as many rules.

How perfect was it that three girls could meet three guys and find the ying to their yang. What were the chances? What were the odds?

Apparently, my anger had started to evolve into the warm and fuzzies and my cheeks were starting to hurt from the massive smile that spread across my face as I looked around the room.

There were a few towels remaining on the deck outside, left to dry overnight, so I went to go see if they were done or if I needed to throw them in the dryer just so they wouldn't get all gross in somebody's luggage. Specifically Garrett. Something told me he was the type to live out of his suitcase until it was empty instead of actually unpacking.

They were all dry, so I pulled them off the railing and moved over to one of the loungers to sit while I folded them. The waves pounded out their rhythm and I let the sun warm my body knowing that it would be for the last time. Well, at least here…it wasn't like I was going to go live in a cave, but it was different at the beach.

The repetition of my motions were therapeutic and monotonous and allowed me to completely avoid the chaos that was going on inside. I wondered where Edward was and turned to go inside with my pile of towels, thinking that maybe I should make sure that he thoroughly checked his room, you know to make sure he hadn't forgotten something.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw something that made me gasp in shock and wondered what Edward would think about one of those for Christmas or a birthday present, or maybe for that random Tuesday. Inside, I told Peter where it was, and high-fived Charlotte.

She and I were going to have to have a talk when we got back to campus about where she got furry handcuffs and a whip and why they were on the deck. Then again, maybe I didn't want to know.

**EPOV**

I looked at my bags perched on top of my bed. Well, it wasn't technically my bed, but it had been my room for a short time. I hadn't really made it a home in the last two months, especially since I spent more time in Bella's room than I had mine, but I was still going to miss it.

Nostalgia was setting in.

It was with complete and utter reluctance that I stepped forward and grabbed my duffle, swinging it over my shoulder as I grabbed my second bag and headed out of the room. The moment I walked out, I ran smack into Peter, who looked just as sullen as I did.

"This sucks," he muttered quietly before heading forward and going down the stairs with his bags in tow. We had postponed leaving for as long as we could, but real life was now breathing down the back of our necks. I had two days before class began and who knows what I had missed while being at the coast. I had paid all my bills and managed to do some real life shit, but lord knows there would be mass amounts of mail and shit I needed to deal with. I just didn't want to do it.

I followed Peter and when I reached the bottom of the stairs, I couldn't help but notice Garrett and Kate attempting to fuck with their clothes on in the kitchen. Their little hookup was certainly an interesting turn of events. However, only time would tell if Kate had managed to tame Garrett or not. I could sense that we were all going to try and make a go of our relationships. I also knew that it wasn't going to be easy. Senior year was hectic, and combine that with looking for jobs when we graduate, I wasn't sure if we would all make it, but I knew without a doubt, that I would do anything to be with Bella.

"Stop with the mouth fucking already," Bella chimed in as I watched her walk across the living room, her body radiating anxiety. I thought 'thirty-nine' to myself, counting her f-words, but I knew she had been alone for the last forty minutes, so it was probably closer to one hundred.

"For the record, it was more like dry-humping," Garrett replied as he pulled Kate closer to him and we all let out a collective groan.

"It doesn't matter. Kate wanted to be on the road an hour ago and you are making this harder than it has to be."

"Oh, something is definitely hard," Garrett added as Peter smacked him upside the head and Charlotte then tried to soothe Peter by rubbing his ass. I didn't want to know what the fuck that was all about. "Oh fine, let's go. We are still going to follow each other right?"

"Yeah, you can follow us until we get to Chapel Hill, and then keep going to Winston-Salem," Charlotte advised as she grabbed Peter's hand in hers and they made their way towards the door. I guess that was her subtle signal that we should all get going.

I had wanted to drive back with Bella and drop her off at her dorm, but Kate was insistent on all the girls driving together. When I tried to protest, she went on a rampage about how much of Bella's time I had monopolized over the summer. I never even had a chance to make my case because Garrett then insisted that he was coming with me in my car, because he had some things to talk about. He even used cheesy air quotes and winked at me. I was fucked.

We all grabbed our bags and headed out to the car, putting things in a specific order like it was a big game of Tetris. It felt like we had brought so much more stuff with us than when we were leaving though. Then again, I felt kinda empty inside.

When everything was said and done, we each paired off and I immediately pulled Bella into my arms, holding her tight against me as I whispered in her ear. "I'll call you tonight, alright?" She nodded and I could hear the sniffles start. Tears were only seconds away; I could feel it. "And we'll text and email and before you know it, you'll come up to visit me or I'll come down and see you."

"I know," Bella replied through her tears as she buried her head into my shoulder and I could feel my shirt growing damp. "It doesn't make this any easier though."

I turned my head and kissed her soundly on the lips before hugging her tightly again. "You need to remember this isn't goodbye, it's 'I'll see you soon.'" It was getting really hard to put a happy spin on things when she looked so fucking sad. "And don't forget that I love you."

"I love you too, Edward," Bella replied quietly as I reached up and brushed some tears away with the pad of my thumb. I pulled her in for another kiss, this one much deeper and emotionally charged. When we finally separated it was because of the honking of my horn as Garrett sat in the passenger seat looked frustrated.

"Come on lovebirds," he called out as I noticed Peter had already begun to back out of his parking spot and the other girls were waiting for Bella. "Let's make like my pants on Thanksgiving and split."

"I love you," I said again, punctuating each word with a kiss as I opened the door to Kate's car for Bella and helped her in. "I'll talk to you tonight."

"I can't wait," Bella said softly before wiping more tears from her eyes. I closed the door and paused for another moment before Garrett honked the horn once more, officially pissing me off. I ran over to my car and climbed in, shooting Garrett an evil look in the process.

"Don't be mad at me. We're all going through shit right now," Garrett declared as he held his hands up in self defense.

"You're not in love with Kate," I challenged. "You have just been boning her and thought it was an awesome way to get back at Lazer for marrying your sister."

"Fuck you. You know that's not true."

"Do I?"

"This is going to be a long drive if you keep acting like a douche." I grew silent and backed out of my spot, my car being the last in line for our little train heading back to college. Peter was the pro with directions, so it was only logical we let him lead. I never looked over at Garrett, until he finally spoke as we made our way onto the highway. "I didn't know you loved her."

"Love...present tense. I can't imagine my life without her."


	18. Alone

**We're gonna keep it short sweet. You get two updates today, who else is excited? Big thanks to MaggieMay14 and smmiskimen for their amazing help with this story.**

**We don't own Twilight; Risbee is about to own 'Toots Magic Ride'. Inside joke LOL**

**Chapter Song: Alone by Heart (and only EVER the original. no remakes.)  
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**BPOV**

Sunday.

_Bye beautiful girl. Ily ~E_

I thought it hurt when I broke my ankle playing soccer in high school.

I thought it hurt when I fell down the stairs moving into Hinton James residence in my freshman year.

I thought it hurt when I took my finals last semester.

I was wrong. Nothing had ever hurt as much as watching the boys drive past exit 73-A. It was all I could do to not unbuckle my seatbelt and fling myself out the window to pull Edward back to me. That would have required super human strength and speed, neither of which l had, unfortunately.

So I just texted him back.

_Be safe. Ily2 ~B_

Then closed my eyes and tried to remember how to breathe. Just so you know, closed eyelids don't prevent tears.

Most years, I couldn't wait to get back to Chapel Hill; there was a reason they called it the 'Southern part of Heaven' after all, because it was. There was just something about it, the campus, the energy, the people and the spirit that just sang to me. It was my happy place, but now, for the first time since I arrived from Forks three years ago, I felt like it was missing something.

Or specifically, someone.

Or even more specifically, Edward.

Not even driving past He's Not Here helped. Though I knew that a Blue Cup or three would at least numb me a bit. We were _so_ going there later.

"We're here." Kate's chipper words annoyed me, but I knew she was just trying to lighten the moment and Charlotte's mumbled 'shut the fuck up' was classic, though the thought of an emo Charlotte was not something that I relished. She tended to get a bit fanatical about her cause du jour when she was out of sorts, so I felt pretty confident that we'd all end up with a ration on toilet paper or new bed sheets made of hemp or something. I was definitely going to have to stash some junk food in my room somewhere… who knew what she'd make us eat on the nights where it was her turn to cook.

Great, now I was missing Food Lion.

_We're sitting still on 40/85 and a chicken just walked past the car ~E_

He always knew how to make me smile.

_Ask him why he did it ~B_

_Funny girl. Holy shit, we're moving. Call you later. ~E_

_Can't wait. ~B_

"You guys disgust me," Kate chimed in from behind me and I just shrugged. It was what it was, and it made me smile. I didn't feel at all guilty.

Soon enough the emptiness returned and as soon as we had unpacked the car, I needed to get away. We lived in a little group of freestanding apartments appropriately known as Smurf Village and the cuteness factor usually sent me into happiness overload. Not anymore.

I ditched my bags and dirty clothes just inside the door of my bedroom in our apartment and told the girls I was going to go buy new art supplies before classes started in a couple of days. Which I realized made no sense considering I didn't yet know what I was going to need for each class, but whatever. Kate and Charlotte looked at me with knowing eyes, but they didn't know, they couldn't know.

To get them off my case, I told them I'd call then when I was done with my errands and we could meet on Franklin Street later since I was suddenly craving a Vanilla Coke from Suttons. Oh my God those things were good. Okay, maybe I was still a little bit glad to be home, but only just a little bit.

The idea of getting back in a car absolutely repulsed me, so I decided to walk. It wasn't oppressively hot considering it was August, and it was actually kind of fun watching the new freshmen walking around with their parents looking all goofy and uncertain. It was kind of precious, actually. The sidewalks were crowded and there were cars parked all over campus with people moving in. I kept thinking I saw wonky hair and more than a few times, I stopped breathing thinking I saw what I knew I didn't really see.

Great, now I was hallucinating.

I'd never been one of those girls to pine away for a boy, not that any boy from Forks had ever affected me like Edward had. That idea, in and of itself, was just ridiculous. I'd always been frustrated at female characters that lived and breathed for a boy, it was fucking maddening. So this whole concept of missing somebody so much that it physically hurt was new to me.

I didn't know what to do with it. I felt a little bit like I was outside of my body. Physically, I was standing in Chapel Hill, mentally I was in Winston-Salem, and emotionally I was in uncharted territory. Basically, I was about two seconds away from throwing an epic temper tantrum because I didn't want to be here, but I did want to be here, but I also wanted to be with Edward. This was a bit terrifying because after two months, I was trying to figure out how to alter my life to fit with his, and that desire was going against everything I believed in, so I needed to figure out how to make our lives work together. My mind, my thoughts were going eight bazillion miles a second and the only thing I was certain of was that I had officially lost my mind.

I wondered what Edward was doing, if he was as discombobulated as I was, but didn't want to text him again, yet. They were probably back in Winston-Salem by this point and I didn't want him to think that I wasn't able to handle this distance thing, because I knew I, we, could do it, but oh my god it sucked and we'd only been apart a few hours.

_I miss you. ~B_

Obviously my self-control was lacking but when I didn't hear back from him right away, I put my phone back in my bag, figuring he was probably busy unpacking and I silently prayed that he'd go ahead and start doing his laundry. I'd heard rumors about the living conditions of college aged boys, and while Peter and Edward weren't exactly stereotypical, I was still worried and possibly a little bit frightened of the possibilities. I figured it could be worse though, and there was probably a good reason that Garrett lived on his own.

Poor Kate. Though the thought of her having to live with that, even if it didn't ever happen in real life, amused me beyond what was probably appropriate. I mean, the girl had a cleaning service for her dorm room. No lie.

I loved her anyway and suddenly found myself missing my girls _and_ since misery loved company, I called them to tell them I'd be waiting at the counter in Suttons. My errands could wait.

Thirty minutes later, the three of us were sitting at the counter with our drinks and not saying a word. I only raised an eyebrow when I saw that Charlotte had Kleenexes stuffed in her hand, but the look on her face let me know that verbally commenting on it would be pushing the limit. I felt like the three of us were sitting there with little dark storm clouds perched over our heads.

Almost simultaneously, our phones chirped and we all had text messages. No need to guess who they were from and suddenly all the dark clouds disappeared.

_The sun will come out…tomorrow…_

Annie? Really?

As much as I wanted to talk to him now, I knew it would be best if I got home first. Besides, learning how to wait, even just five minutes, would be good practice, right? Might as well get used to it.

Looking at Kate and Charlotte, I knew we were all on the same page, so back to Smurf Village, we went.

Alone in the quiet and comfort of my bedroom, I cuddled against my pillows…tucked inside the pillow cases I 'borrowed' from the beach. I'd return them eventually, but I couldn't help myself. Edward's pillow still smelled like him and I had the t-shirt I confiscated wrapped around my pillow. I knew it wouldn't last forever, but maybe until he was able to visit. Whenever that would be.

I knew that he would start student teaching this semester and add that to both of our class schedules, it made more sense to leave things unscheduled. Still, I had fall break in my sights, even if I had to sit in his apartment while he was in class, school or whatever. At least my artwork was portable. Making plans 'later' would be much easier than making plans and then having to break them.

I immersed myself in my artwork, taking my sketchbook with me to campus and trying to come up with something, anything, to take up my free time. I loved the campus - the tradition, the history, the atmosphere - but I loved Edward more and I missed him more than I ever thought possible. I was also way more pathetic than I should be considering he was only an hour away and it wasn't like we would have to go months or years without seeing each other. Once the fall semester got underway, and our schedules weren't so crazy, I'd be there or he'd be here or we'd be somewhere in between. It didn't matter where, as long as we were together.

I couldn't wait any longer and I don't think I'd ever dialed a phone as fast. I had magic fingers. While the phone was ringing, I got up and made sure my bedroom door was locked. You know, just in case…

"Hi."

One word and suddenly all was right in my world. I knew we could make this work; that the distance would be an inconvenience at worst, that the only thing that mattered was that we loved each other. All my insecurities and questions melted away with that one simple word.

"Hi."

I could feel him beside me, his words wrapped around me like a blanket and it was like we were in the same place. Forget crazy…I had moved on to sappy and completely cheesy. I didn't care at all, because I felt so much better.

We talked about how much we had to do before classes started, and how his apartment smelled like feet because Peter left some dirty clothes in the living room by accident. We talked about how he was nervous to teach and how I couldn't wait to get back in the studio and get my hands dirty.

Speaking of dirty, there was some of that too. It was a good thing I locked my door.

Yeah. That.

Twice.

When I eventually emerged from my bliss bubble, Kate and Charlotte were wearing similar expressions. We just grinned sheepishly at each other and I swear Kate blushed.

"Blue Cups?" I suggested, because it was tradition after all and they were little containers of awesomeness.

"You know what, Bella…I think that's exactly what we need." Charlotte agreed and Kate nodded, still looking rather pleased with herself.

He's Not was perfect. We got a table, met up with some friends, and like I had figured, the Blue Cups did the trick.

I made it home, or stumbled rather, just in time to call Edward one last time and profess my undying, slightly inebriated love. It was probably for the best that my computer and webcam weren't set up - that could have been embarrassing - and just hearing his sleepy, groggy voice whisper goodnight was enough.

I fell asleep with hiccups and a smile on my face.


	19. Everybody Hurts

**Another short one. We'd thank MaggieMay14 (even though we forgot to send it to her) and smmiskimen (for doing this in like an hour)  
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**We don't own Twilight; Risbee doesn't own 'Toots Magic Ride' yet. It's delayed to tomorrow. LOL  
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**Chapter Song: Everybody Hurts by REM  
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**EPOV**

It had been a long day and an even longer week. Being apart from Bella was ten times harder than I thought it would be. Sure, we communicated in some way every day, either by phone, email, text or Skype, but it wasn't the same. It wasn't like I could just reach over and touch her soft skin, or curl up with her on the couch, nuzzling my nose into the nape of her neck and kissing her. I missed the constant contact with her, but more than anything, I just missed _her_.

Being in love was turning me into a sappy shit.

I finished my music history class and made my way to the parking lot so I could head home and get some rest. I hadn't had a good night's sleep since we came back from the coast and I knew it was because of the lack of Bella beside me in bed. She was like my own personal sleeping pill.

When I got to my car, I tossed my bags in the backseat and felt my phone buzzing in my pocket. A huge smile broke out on my face when I saw that the incoming call was from Bella.

"Hey beautiful," I answered as I heard a giggle on the other end of the phone.

"Hey yourself."

"To what do I owe the pleasure?" I asked, somewhat formally, as I threw my head back and hit it on my headrest. I felt like such a doofus when I talked to her on the phone, like I was different than I was at the beach. "Or um...just hi." Ah shit, I could feel a hiccup coming on.

"Hi...again," she said with a small laugh as I pressed my hand against my chest, hoping to tame my hiccups. "I just wanted to know what was going on with you. I'm in between classes today."

"Don't you spend all your time in the studio coming up with brilliant masterpieces of art?"

"Usually yes, though I'm not sure I would call them brilliant these days. I have classes all day on Wednesday and a lot of the rest of my time is studio time."

"I wish I had four days off a week," I replied with a laugh.

"If only it was so easy," Bella replied and I could sense a hint of hesitation in her voice. "I haven't been able to focus since I got back."

"What's wrong?" I was genuinely concerned for her, because even while we had been away, she had been sketching ideas for works and telling me excitedly about things she wanted to get done when she got back to school. Yet, now that she was there, it seemed like everything was at a standstill.

"I did all these sketches and had all these grand plans for some great concepts, but the moment I got myself all prepped to do something, I froze."

"Are you alright?" There was a brief pause and then I could hear sniffling in the background. I dropped my forehead to the steering wheel and let out a quiet sigh. "Please don't cry, baby."

"I miss you sooo much, Edward."

"I miss you too, more than you could ever realize."

"I didn't think it was going to be this hard, ya know?"

"Yeah, I know, baby."

"When can I see you again?" she asked quietly as I let out a groan. I had agreed to help out the school board on the Monday of Labor Day and now I regretted it. There were funding cuts across the district and I was desperate to keep my student teaching position, that's why. There was no way I wanted to go work with some people I barely liked when I could possibly go visit Bella.

"I already have a thing for Labor Day, but let me see if I can get out of it," I replied as I heard Bella sniggle again and my heart literally plummeted in my chest.

"Don't worry about it, Edward. If you have something planned then its fine. We'll figure out something soon, right?"

I spent the next few minutes reassuring Bella as much as I could before she had to head into her next class. I promised that I would call her later in the evening and we would try and review our schedules and find time to get together, and she seemed placated, for the moment. However, I wasn't sure when the hell I would get to see her next. I hated the uncertainty.

As I drove back to the apartment I shared with Peter, I decided the only logical thing to do was to cancel the plans I had on Labor Day and head down to Chapel Hill to see her. I didn't have class on the Friday, and we had the Monday off, so I could literally spend 4 days completely wrapped around her, if she would let me, that is.

When I walked in the door of the apartment, I could see the back of Peter's head as he sat on the couch. Unfortunately for me, he didn't hear me.

"No Char, I promise...no Kleenex. I have a towel to clean up the mess," Peter uttered, as I noticed he sounded a bit nervous. I put my bag on the floor as I walked towards the fridge to grab a drink, I heard him moan.

Oh shit.

"Dude... No..." I shouted out as I accidently let go of the beer I had grabbed and the bottle fell to the floor, shattering into a thousand pieces. Peter jumped up from the couch, shoving his dick back in his pants, which thankfully I didn't see, and promised Charlotte he would call her back. "You have your own bedroom, man."

"I didn't think you would be home."

"So that makes it alright to jerk off in the living room?" Peter shrugged his shoulders and my mouth fell open. "New rule – no jerking off in common areas. No fucking in them either. It's just gross."

"Fine," Peter replied in frustration as he made his way to his room and shut the door. I headed back into the kitchen to clean up the mess I had made when I realized something important - I wanted to have sex with Bella all over the common areas of our apartment.

I was totally breaking that rule whenever she got to visit me.


	20. Here Comes Your Man

**Happy Friday and Happy Long Weekend! We're back with the final chapter, although there is an epilogue somewhere out there that will we post in the next week or so. As always, we adore MaggieMay14 and smmiskimen for all their help with this story.**

**We don't own Twilight; Risbee now owns Toots' Magic Ride and CPW had no internet at work for 24 hours and wrote over 10k of a new story.**

**Chapter Song: Here Comes Your Man by the Pixies**

**BPOV**

"Are you sure you don't want to come with us?" Kate poked her head in my doorway and asked me the same question for the zillionth time.

Kate, Charlotte, Peter and Garrett were all heading back down to the beach for the long weekend. They apparently wanted a last hurrah. Notice that I didn't include Edward and myself in that list. No last minute fun in the sun for us and I was tired of being asked, more like interrogated, about going. I was equally tired of having to answer; nevertheless my answer remained emotionless and unwavering as it had since I realized that we couldn't go- "Next time. We're still on for Thanksgiving, right?"

"Yeah, and if you change your mind, you know where to find us…I'll leave my car keys on the hook in the kitchen just in case." Kate looked hopeful and I just smiled, not willing to completely squelch her dreams, but we both knew it wasn't going to happen. I couldn't and wouldn't go back there without Edward.

Not yet, anyway.

"I'll be fine. I hate that the timing didn't work out, but whatever. With the cuts to the schools and funding issues, Edward was really lucky to keep his student teaching position, so when they said they wanted him to help out with some sort of project on Monday, he could hardly say no."

And I agreed with him, even though I really, _really_ wanted him to say no.

Did I mention that I really wanted him to say no?

Kate sighed and rolled her eyes, mumbling about living life while we were young or something about traffic, I didn't even care. I just wanted her to leave. I wanted all of them to leave so I could wallow in my own depressed three-day weekend of misery.

Thank god for good webcams and empty apartments. Silver lining, right? Assuming I could actually get my friends to leave.

And honestly, it did work out for the best. I had stuff I needed to get done around the apartment and couldn't really afford to leave town, both time-wise and money-wise, so Edward and I took my car trouble and his schedule conflicts as a sign. Fall Break was coming up for both of us and we made plans to go camping.

Alone.

Okay, so the thought of four days alone with him did manage to bring a smile to my face. I couldn't wait to, ahem, yeah…

"Bella?" Oops. I still wasn't alone and judging by the look on her face, Kate knew exactly where my mind wasn't…which was on her.

"Are you sure?"

I took a pillow off my bed and threw it at her face, laughing. "Go on. I'll be fine, promise. I'll watch some football, I'll brush up on my Scrabble, I'll sculpt, draw, paint or do something artsy that you will be proud of or look at with confusion. It will be good. Tell Garrett and Peter that I said hi and for God's sake, keep Charlotte happy and buy screw top wine. She's finally eased up on the paper product rationing."

I tried my hardest not to look over towards my closet where I had a secret stash of paper towels and toilet paper. Yes, it had gotten that bad.

"I heard that!" Charlotte shoved her way past Kate and plopped down on my bed.

Well come on in, why don't cha?

She handed me her bio-chem textbook and said, "I highlighted some things you may be interested in. But I need it back on Sunday to go through my final list. Peter's notes are in yellow, mine are in green." Green…I found that somewhat appropriate, if not a little confusing because I wasn't taking bio-chem. Bio-chem scared the bejeebus out of me. Hello, did she forget I was a studio art major?

Okaaaay. I kept staring at her and she kept making this ridiculous face like she was trying to, I don't even know, mutate into something or someone else. The girl had been spending a lot of time in her room and online doing research for having only been in class for just over a week. Maybe going back to the beach would do her some good.

I wanted to go back to the beach, so I pouted. Hard.

"You know what, this is ridiculous." Kate took her phone out of her bag and started scrolling through her contacts. "I'm going to call Gar now and just tell him we'll go down next weekend. I only have classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays anyway, so it doesn't bother me. I'm not going to leave you here alone."

Before I could start protesting, I heard Garrett's voice on the other end and Kate disappeared down the hall. I didn't even realize I had been crying until I felt Charlotte's thumbs on my cheeks and felt her whispering in my ear.

"I know, Bella. I know." And I believed her, but I also didn't think it was possible for her to feel like I felt. Was that just completely wrong and selfish of me to think that she wouldn't be hurting like I was? Or that maybe Kate was as excited to see Garrett as I would have been to see Edward? Who was I to think that what Edward and I had was more encompassing, more passionate, more real than what they had?

Yellow speedos not withstanding.

"Is it wrong that I'm angry Edward can't go to the beach? Is it wrong that I'm angry that _because_ Edward can't go to the beach I made the decision to not go to the beach? Is it wrong that I'm angry at Edward because he chose to be responsible?"

I knew what the answer was, but Charlotte told me what I wanted to hear anyway, agreeing with my rants and my tears and just letting me snot-sob all over her Snitches Be Crazy t-shirt.

Snitches Be Crazy. It was almost better than the corn shirt. Almost. And that was saying a lot.

By the time Kate came back in the room, I had recovered. Well, to the point where my pity-party had run its course…sort of. I was still disappointed, sure, but it wasn't the end of the world. I'd even decided to look into renting a car and driving to Winston for a quickie or several. I could make this work.

I would make this work.

One way or another, I was not going to sit at home in my apartment alone and mope. Nope, not gonna happen.

My determination to do something about it worked out well considering the boys had already left Winston-Salem by the time Kate called and were already almost to Burlington. She didn't have the heart to tell them to turn around and honestly, I wouldn't have let her if she had succeeded. We didn't all have to be miserable this weekend.

Edward and I were lucky to have each other and that is what I needed to focus on. Not the miles between us, but what brought us together and kept us together regardless of the physical distance.

A quick glance at my clock told me that He's Not wasn't open yet…so I needed to work on my non-liquid persuasion skills. At least until I could round up a few friends to spend the afternoon with. And yes, I knew that drinking wouldn't solve my problems, but you know what…for an afternoon, it would work just fine.

I sat up, effectively shoving Charlotte on the floor before handing her the bio-chem book. That, in turn, made her start with the wonky faces again, but whatever, and I ignored her craziness as I tried to push the two of them out of my bedroom door.

First things first, I was going for a run around campus. It always made me feel better, even if I bitched and moaned with every step until I got back home. Then I was going to go out with some friends. _Then_ I was going to come home and get Edward on the other end of my webcam and do dirty, dirty things in every possible room in this apartment. Maybe even twice.

Because I could.

"Go. Get out. Leave. Go see your boys and have a good time. I will be fine. Promise."

Kate nodded her approval and told me how proud she was…whatever, girl was going to go get laid. I could have said I was going to transfer to Duke and she would have approved. Charlotte dug in her heels and it was all I could do to get her out of my room with all her protesting, but I finally did it.

Like I mentioned earlier, she was freakishly strong and my doorframe had the gouges to prove it.

With the door closed firmly behind me, I started mentally planning my route when all of a sudden the door opened and Charlotte's arm wedged its way in, tossing the textbook back on my bed.

What in the ever living fuck?

When I went to go pick it up, a catalogue fell out. Stapled to it, was a crisp, white business card.

Oh my fucking god…Charlotte sells sex toys.

I couldn't stop laughing.

When did she decide to do this? I always knew she knew her stuff and it was true what they said about the quiet ones, but I had no idea she had the balls to be a consultant. I mean, she couldn't even hand me the catalogue without hiding it in a book, but I had to give her credit. Good for her.

Flipping through, the only thing I could thing was that there were a lot of notes..._a lot_. Seems she and Peter were down with the freaky deaky. See. Couldn't. Stop. Laughing. And this was way to good not to share.

I had to talk to Edward. Now.

If we happened to peruse the catalog, well then, my run could wait. Hell, I'd probably have more energy to burn. Besides, any purchases I made would be helping Charlotte pay for her education, so win-win. I looked at my laptop, but he wasn't logged on to chat or Skype or anywhere I could see. Eh, the phone wasn't my preferred choice, but whatever, it would do for now.

It rang and rang before going to voicemail.

Well, damn. Just as I was about to leave him a message though, my phone beeped and it was him, so I hung up and answered.

"Hi! You're never going to believe what I just found out!" I settled on my bed preparing to go item by item when he cut me off.

"Bella, I'm sorry. Can I get back to you later this afternoon? I have somewhere I want to be in an hour and I'm running behind. I'm really sorry baby. I'll make it up to you, I promise."

Suddenly, my good mood deflated like a balloon. Seriously. I watched it zoom across the room as all the air left.

"Sure." I said, trying to not sound so disappointed, when really, all I wanted to do was cry. Again. Looked like I was going for that run after all.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have presumed you were just sitting around like I was." I could hear him moving around on the other end of the line, swearing when he bumped into something and sounding actually like he was truly busy.

"What time is it now, Bella?"

I glanced at my watch. "A little after 11, why?"

"Shit. I'm later than I wanted to be. I really need to run. Look, we'll talk this afternoon. Promise. I really hate to cut you off like this, but…"

"It's fine." I said, even though it wasn't.

"You sound mad."

"I'm not. I need to go for a run anyway. Skype around 3ish?"

"I will see you at 3, yes. I could handle a little face time with you."

"Just face time?" I teased, hoping to god he got the hint.

"Bella…" the tone of his voice let me know that he did, in fact, get it.

"I love you Edward."

"Love you too, baby. See you soon."

I wish, because now, more than ever, I wanted to see him. Not during Fall Break, not next weekend, not even tomorrow. I wanted to see him now.

A flash of silver caught my eye and forget renting a car…I wanted to borrow Kate's. And yes, I was totally going to ask her first. I did have some manners. I know she said it was okay if I wanted to use it to come to the beach, but I didn't want to make the assumption that she'd be okay with me taking it in the opposite direction. Not that her saying no would have stopped me.

She didn't answer her phone and Charlotte didn't answer hers either. Maybe they stopped for lunch or to get gas or something. Maybe their music was up too loud. Ugh. Why didn't they answer their stupid phones?

After calling each of them three times, I finally resorted to leaving Kate a message practically begging her to let me use her car and promising whatever she wanted in return. Dangerous, but so worth it.

Now, all I had to do was wait. I didn't wait well. Ever.

So I grabbed my iPod and went for my run. I needed to make sure Edward was going to be home anyway, so I couldn't leave until I talked to him. This worked out well. I'd run, shower, talk to him…and be there in time for dinner.

And dessert.

I was a big fan of this plan. It would work. We would see each other and there would be sunshine and rainbows in my life again.

I swear a bird just flew beside me and high-fived my brilliance. I was like a fucking Disney Princess.

With every step, I went through my new to-do list, from what I was going to pack and if I wanted to grab dinner for on my way there, and what to pick up, finally deciding on Chinese because it heated up better…and lets face it, we weren't going to be eating dinner right away if I had my way. My steps grew lighter and my shoulders left their new favorite spot up by my ears. This was good.

The run went well. The shower felt amazing. I was completely lost in my thoughts and my excitement to the point where I didn't even notice the shower curtain pulling back and a certain boy with mischievous green eyes and a beautiful crooked smirk standing there looking at me.

Of course I screamed!

Looks like things had come full circle.

God, I loved that boy.

**EPOV**

"How in the hell did you get in here?" Bella yelled as she wrapped her arms around her, her soaking wet naked body pressing against my fully clothed one. I didn't really give a shit that she was drenching me. "I mean…I locked the door behind me and how did you know where my apartment was?"

"Kate." It was all I could really say. She had helped me mastermind the entire surprise visit and even though I did have to go back and help with a project on Monday, I didn't have to be there until two in the afternoon. That gave us two whole days alone together, plus Friday night and Monday morning.

"That conniving bitch," she said as she pushed back from me and stood there with her hands on her hips as water poured down against her body. Fuck, she looked even better than I remembered, with her gorgeous and perky breasts, slim body and bare…

I yanked my damp shirt off over my head as fast as I could and continued to stare at Bella as she began yammering on about how Kate had conned her for the past few days. She mumbled something about how we both sucked as I finished pulling off the rest of my clothes and climbed in the shower with her, cutting her off mid ran as I sucked one of her nipples into my mouth and she began to purr.

"Oh fuck, do you ever suck, baby," she forced out as I pushed her back against the tile wall, my hands roaming across her wet skin as I nibbled, tugged and sucked on her breast, before switching to the other. "Oh god…"

"Did you miss me, Bella?" I asked, fighting back the hiccups that had been threatening to come ever since I had gotten in the car to come visit her.

I had been extremely nervous about the success of Kate's scheme, but when she called Garrett one day and insisted on talking to me to let me know how depressed Bella had seemed, I knew I had to do something. Thankfully, Kate had a plan and it was a good one.

"Yes…yes, I missed you," Bella replied through clenched teeth as I lifted one of her legs onto the edge of the tub and began to run my fingers softly between her legs. I knew I was teasing her, but I was growing more confident sexually with each day that passed. It had to be the influence of my insatiable girlfriend that helped in that regard.

Since we had been apart, we had indulged in phone sex, cyber sex and we had even Skyped once. That had been my favorite since she showed me her favorite toy and just how well she could use it on herself. I jerked off at my pc and had to get a new keyboard after that. It was worth it though. However, being in the flesh with my girl was ten thousand times better than being online or on the phone with her.

"I missed you too, sweetheart." I kissed the side of her neck as her hands found the back of my neck, pulling me closer to her as I pushed two fingers inside of her wet warmth. I groaned against her slick neck as I pumped my fingers inside of her slowly, bringing her to the edge of release, but not letting her come. I kissed my way up her neck to her chin and then her lips as the water continued to pelt our bodies and I decided it was time to throw caution to the wind and show her more of my newfound confidence.

"I missed kissing you, touching your beautiful body and fucking your sweet pussy," I whispered to her as I heard Bella gasp in surprise.

Yeah, talking really dirty wasn't my forte, but I was working on it. Though it was embarrassing as fuck to be caught by Peter as I tried to practice in the bathroom mirror. He thought I had turrets, and I hiccupped for two hours after that incident. "I can't wait to fuck you, right here, against your shower wall, my dirty girl."

"Yes...please," Bella murmured breathlessly as I wrapped my arm around her waist and lifted her to press her against the wall. She wrapped her legs around me effortlessly, and lined my dick up with her slit. The moment Bella grabbed my face with her hands I groaned and slid into her with sigh of relief and overwhelming love. I was so in love with this girl and her kicking my ass with her heel to get me to fuck her only solidified this.

For the next few minutes, I rocked and thrust into her, our bodies moving perfectly together as we moaned, kissed and panted our way through to release. Bella's fingers dug into the skin of my shoulder as she kissed my lips frantically. I couldn't help it when I neared the edge, so I gripped Bella's ass and pressed her harder against the shower wall as I dropped my hand between us and she followed, both us rubbing her clit with our entwined fingers as I pressed as deep inside of her as I could.

"I want to watch you…like on Skype," I whispered to her as I bit down on her earlobe and I noticed her entire body tense. Hmm…she liked the dirty talking, huh? "I want to watch you fuck yourself with a toy, baby."

"Oh…fuck…"

"Yeah…I want to see you cum all over that toy before I shove my cock inside you and fuck you so hard you'll be begging me to stop."

"I'll never tell you to stop," she shouted as I felt her grow rigid and shout out my name as she came. Honestly…it was the hottest thing ever and not two seconds later I grunted out my own release, just as the water turned cold.

"Holy shit," Bella shouted as she moved to climb off of me, twisting our bodies around and tangling us together awkwardly. I tried to get Bella to stand still, but as she was reaching to turn the water off, I slipped, taking her down with me and the shower curtain onto the bathroom floor.

I looked at her with worry as she suddenly burst into an uncontrollable fit of laughter. "Are you okay?"

"More than okay," she said with a giggle as she wrapped her arms around me and began kissing across my face and then my chest. "I love you."

"I love you too."

Thirty minutes later found me and Bella curled up on the couch in each others arms. I was twisting her slightly damp hair in between my fingers as she yelled at me for surprising her.

"I was about to steal Kate's car and drive down to see you. I can't believe you."

"Grand theft auto is not something I want you doing on my account, baby."

"I know but…it was just…it's rough being away from you after having you so close for two months, ya know?"

"I know, Bella…I do. It's the same for me. I hate having to call you, email you, text you etc…when before I just had to turn to my left and there you were. On a positive note, I made it here in under an hour from Wake, so we should be able to spend a decent amount of time together."

"That doesn't excuse you from the heartache I've felt for the past few days over us not going to the beach with our friends."

"You can't tell me you are disappointed by that, right?" I asked with a wink as I leaned down and kissed Bella's temple. "Do you really want to be back in that house with them when we have your apartment all to ourselves?"

I wrapped my arm around her waist and flipped her onto her back on the couch, spreading her legs as I settled between them. Yeah, I was already hard again but it was really difficult for me not to be in her presence.

"Hmm…do I want to spend time dodging our friends good intentions or making love to my gorgeous boyfriend?" Bella asked playfully as she moved her hips against mine and then kissed my chin softly. "I do believe I'll choose option number two."

"Good answer," I said sternly as I hooked my fingers in the waistband of her boy shorts and yanked them off of her with a wide grin on my face. "I do believe I owe you some quality over quantity."

"Can't it be both?" Bella asked as she licked her lips and then smiled brightly at me.

Hell, as far as I was concerned, she could have anything she wanted for the rest of our lives.


	21. Golden

**So, this is the epilogue of our little summer story. We hope you guys enjoyed reading it as much as we enjoyed writing it. We promise this won't be the last story you will see on our joint profile; we may have something in the works for Christmas. **

**Huge thanks to MaggieMay14 and smmiskimen for sorting through this mess. We adore them.**

**We don't own Twilight, nuff' said.**

**Chapter Song: Golden by My Morning Jacket**

**BPOV**

Edward and I stood on the edge of the sidewalk and waved as my parents' rental car pulled away from the curb. They were headed back to Washington, the proud parents of a new graduate with a seemingly useless degree. At least, that's what they had been telling me for the past four years.

So imagine my excitement and the look on their faces when I was able to tell them that I did, in fact, have a job that was pretty kickass with the Downtown Arts District Association, which was located where? Oh, that's right. Winston-Salem.

And where did Edward currently have a teaching job lined up? Winston-Salem.

Fucking. Win.

"I think that went well, don't you?" Edward said with a wink as he tried to stop my spastic flapping and waving since the car was out of sight. I couldn't help it; I missed them so much already. "Your dad's 'stache is even more awesome in person. Do you think I can pull that look off? It might help me maintain some authority over my students next year." I couldn't believe that Edward was actually worried about looking too young and not being taken seriously. I was more worried about the female population liking him just a little _too_ much, both students and teachers, alike.

I paused for a moment and tried to imagine him with a moustache…it might just work - as a repellant.

"Um no. If you grow one, I grow one. Just think about that, why don't cha." Immediately his face fell and his lower lip came out. What was it with boys and their need to grow facial hair? I mean, a few days of scruff after spending a weekend in bed, sure. A full on Charlie 'stach - total libido killer. No matter how much Charlotte and Kate disagreed with me. Yeah, I almost moved out after they told me that they had a thing for my dad.

Gross.

I stood up on my tiptoes and planted a sweet little kiss on the end of his nose and just realized how perfect things were. "But to answer your question, yes it went really, really well. Both of them seemed to adore you and realize that you make me incredibly happy. There was barely any reaction when I told them that we were living together."

"Are you kidding? You totally missed your dad going for his gun when you blurted it out while we were waiting for our table."

"Which is why I told him here, duh? I knew that he wouldn't bring it to graduation and that we were totally safe. Besides, did you see the look on their faces when I told them that I had a job? After that bombshell, I probably could have told them that I was joining a nudist commune and they wouldn't have cared." I grabbed Edward's hand and started walking back to my old apartment. "Come on. We have to get on the road ourselves. Kate only reminded me eight-hundred times this morning that we have dinner reservations at Beaufort Grocery tonight. Everybody's meeting there at eight."

The six of us were headed back down to the beach for a week. A final hurrah. A last celebration before we had to do the responsible grown up thing and actually start working for a living. Even Peter who, even though he was starting med school in the fall, actually had an internship lined up for the summer so his carefree days were numbered as well. Kate, Charlotte, Garrett and Peter left early this morning, but since my parents weren't leaving until this afternoon, Edward and I were driving down separately.

We got back to the now empty apartment in Smurf Village and I took it all in. Four years of college life, packed into bags and boxes and sorted into keep, toss, or donate piles. Memories came flooding back to parties we had hosted, all night study sessions, and weekend visits with Edward.

"You know," I said as I turned and started to unbutton his white dress shirt with one hand while holding his tie with the other, "We have a few minutes before we have to leave for the beach and if we shower and get ready for dinner here, well then…" I felt his eyes rake across my body and I shivered. I tried to do the math in my head and figure out exactly how much time we had before we needed to get on the road, and then I realized that I didn't care if we're a little late for dinner.

As his mouth crushed down on mine, I felt pretty certain that Edward didn't mind it either.

The drive to Beaufort from Chapel Hill was monotonous. I-40 to Highway 70. That was it. Edward drove and I tried my best to entertain him, though he refused my offer of road head.

Seriously. Who refuses that? He mumbled something about his Volvo being low to the ground and 18 wheelers being taller, while I just pouted in my seat.

I only laughed a little bit at the "Eat Here, Get Gas" sign outside of Kinston. Okay, so maybe I laughed a lot. It was funny. Edward, of course, wanted to stop the car and take a picture but there really wasn't a good place so I promised him that next time we came down here, we'd actually take the exit and find the place.

As we drove, I started thinking about the next time, and the next time after that, and how I wanted to come down here with our children. Yes, I said our children, because I had thought that far ahead. I grabbed Edward's hand from its rest on the gear shift, his car was an automatic, but he liked to pretend. Testosterone was a funny thing. I rubbed my thumb over his knuckles and watched the landscape pass by in a blur, my eyelids getting heavy and the quiet vibrations of the road lulling me to sleep.

"Hey, none of that." Edward pulled his hand away and cranked up some Mumford and Sons. It wasn't exactly Rage Against The Machine, but the volume at least served its purpose and I gave him the stink eye. He didn't like it when I slept in the car, claiming it made him feel lonely.

"First of all, sleeping wasn't my original plan, but you told me no. This is all your fault. All of it." I stuck my tongue out at him and the next thing I knew, we're flying across the highway and off an exit ramp. He pulled into a vacant parking lot and before I could even breathe, my seatbelt was undone and he pulled me over to his lap where I felt that, while his conscious was telling him no, his body was very much in favor of my suggestion.

We were going to be _so_ late for dinner.

"Hold on a sec." Edward stopped me by the door and swept his thumb just under my eye wiping away some errant mascara or eyeliner or something. I knew that I must look like a hot mess with my hair all tousled and make up all askew. Edward didn't look any better, what with the obvious mark right where his jawline met his ear. It had to be done though, I remembered how the hostess looked at him the last time we were here and I was all about claiming what was mine.

And Edward was most definitely mine.

Besides, I had my own mark. It was just hidden, though I swear I could still feel his teeth on my inner thigh as I thought about it. His green eyes darkened as he looked at me, eventually shaking his head and muttering something about how it was a lost cause, but I saw him smirk and the way he strutted into the restaurant made me thud. As much as I loved and adored how sweet and endearing he was, when he showed his cocky side, subtle though it may be, I was done for.

If I wasn't starving, and if we weren't already forty-five minutes late, I would have tried to figure out how to get out of dinner altogether. What could I say; Edward made me crazy insatiable. The other two couples were already seated and at least two drinks in by the time the hostess decided to even acknowledge us.

I totally glared at her and she eyed Edward up and down. M.I.N.E.

Charlotte jumped up and hugged me like she hadn't just seen me that morning before graduation and Peter and Edward did the man handshake half hug thing. Garrett and Kate smiled, but I could tell that they were a little irritated and for a split second I felt a bit sheepish for being late. I had it all planned out in my head, getting ready to blame it on bad traffic in Raleigh. Yeah. That. Traffic.

"Rough ride?" Kate quipped, sipping on a drink that actually managed to look bitchy. Edward started to choke on his beer and I didn't even bother to lie, instead I just winked and shrugged. What else could I do, really? She knew me too well.

After the waiter came by and took everybody's order, I looked around at this crazy table thinking how much had changed since this time last year. New friends, new love and new lives together – all because of chance. If I hadn't met Kate, who knew Tanya, who was related to Garrett, who knew Peter who lived with Edward. It was getting all kinds of Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon in my head, which then made me think about the dance scene from Footloose with the tractors. He was yummy back in the day.

I actually found myself getting a little emotional about it all. Not Footloose, but the direction our lives were heading in. I was happy, my life was awesome and if things went the way I wanted to, I'd never again be forced to spend weeks at a time away from the man I loved. I cleared my throat and held up my glass, "To good friends."

"To good friends," everybody echoed and I felt like quite the grown up. It made me giggle and I leaned my head on Edward's shoulder. The look and pointed glances Kate and Garrett were giving each other did not escape my notice though, but before I could ask them what was going on, Charlotte chimed in with her own toast.

"To paid off Student Loans." She was met with four gawking expressions and a high five from Peter. "What can I say; I'm good at what I do." Edward squeezed my hand and we both laughed, because yes, yes she was. I have a little velvet bag of toys in my luggage to prove it.

More looks were exchanged between Kate and Garrett. "Something is up with them," I whispered nudging Edward and looking back at the two of them as they whispered back and forth. They looked very intense, yet very happy…until Garrett stormed off and Kate looked like she had tears in her eyes.

Holy emotional whiplash.

By this time, Peter and Charlotte noticed that something was up, but Kate wasn't talking. I was _this close _to going to the bed and breakfast across the street to see if they had any vacancies because I was _not_ going to spend my weekend playing guess the issue, when Garrett came back with a bottle of champagne and six flutes.

He poured one for each of us, lifted Kate's left hand and said, "She's _not_ pregnant."

Kate's tears had spilled over by this point, but she looked completely elated. "That's not the big news though. What is, is that when I realized that I wasn't, I realized that I wanted to be."

Holy. Shit.

"Close your mouth, Bella. You look like a trout. I meant that I wanted to be eventually. Not right now, God," Kate continued as she scooched over, closer to Garrett and I knew then, what was going on.

"He asked you to marry him?" Charlotte shrieked and I started bouncing up and down until I looked over and they were both shaking their heads.

"Nope," Kate replied.

"You're NOT getting married?" I asked in complete confusion, because otherwise I had no idea what was going on with them. Nothing else made sense.

"Oh, we're getting married, alright," Garrett said, fist bumping Edward with one hand and grabbing Kate's ass with the other. Some things never changed. "But I didn't ask her. She asked me."

SHE DID WHAT?

"That's right," Kate agreed beaming and looking happier than I'd ever seen her look. "That's why we wanted you all here tomorrow. We're not just getting married, we're getting married tomorrow."

**EPOV**

"Next time you get married, bro, do you think you can give us a bit more notice?" joked Peter as he adjusted his tie and looked into the mirror beside me. "I am one handsome man. No wonder Char can't keep her hands off of me."

"Sorry to burst your bubble, but there won't be a next time, buddy. Kate's it for me." I couldn't help but notice how sincere Garrett was in his words. It was amazing how much he had truly changed in the past year. Hell, we had all changed a lot. Peter was madly in love and about to go to medical school. I was going to be teaching in the fall and I had finally gotten rid of those pesky hiccups, but Garrett had the biggest transformation of all. From complete douche to loving soon-to-be husband. "Sure, things didn't look so good back at Christmas when Tanya filed for divorce, but their issues are not our problem."

Ah yes, the divorce of the century.

As it turned out, I lost the bet. In early September when Tanya and 'Lazer got back from their extended honeymoon, I got to hear second-hand from Bella and Garrett about how their marriage was falling apart. 'Lazer would call Kate and complain and Tanya would do the same to Garrett. I had $100 riding on the fact that their marriage wouldn't last until December 1st, but Peter bet me it would be January 1st, so he friggin won. Douche.

It seemed that Tanya and 'Lazer had an open marriage, and her husband was a lot more open than Tanya preferred. She walked in on him in his office with his secretary, two female paralegals and another partner. The scandal stayed under wraps for a few months but when the divorce proceedings began to heat up and 'Lazer wasn't willing to be meet Tanya's outrageous demands, she went to the papers. The shit hit the fan, but Garrett and Kate saw the entire thing as a blessing in disguise. No more hiding behind people's backs and what not. However, it also meant no big wedding with both families, so here we are.

"Did you ever think last summer that you would end up back here, a year later, to marry Kate?" I asked Garrett as he slipped on his sandals and gave me a huge grin.

"Not in a million fucking years! That girl drove me fucking insane last summer and not in a good way, but fuck...she's worth it. Every single argument with my sister or parents, each tear I've had to wipe from her cheek because her dad made her cry or threatened to cut her off...everything has been worth it."

"When did you turn into such a chick?" Peter asked with a laugh as Garrett reached forward and smacked him upside the head. "Don't fuck with the hair."

"Oh shut it," Garrett yelled at him as there was a rough knock on the door and Charlotte peeked her head in.

"Everything is ready. The minister is here and we're ready to get the show on the road," she said sweetly before winking and licking her lips at Peter. She shut the door quietly behind her as I looked at Garrett.

"Are you ready, man?" I asked simply.

"Never been more ready. Let's do this shit."

Thirty minutes later, I sat perched on a chair on the beach with Bella on my lap. Garrett and Kate were posing barefoot on the beach while getting pictures taken by the neighbor, who was also a photographer. I still couldn't believe they were married. I watched as Garrett rolled up the hem of his khaki pants and pulled Kate, in her knee length white dress, into the waves of the ocean with him. They were blissfully happy and I couldn't have been more excited for them.

"Kate certainly follows through when she puts her mind to something huh?" I questioned as Bella nuzzled closer to me in my arms.

"She's insane. It's like...look out Martha Stewart," Bella laughed as she lifted her sundress a bit so it wasn't dragging too much in the sand. "They got engaged two weeks ago, hid it from us and planned the entire thing in fourteen days. She even bought you guys' clothes, doesn't that say something?" I actually hadn't minded that she picked out white dress shirts, khakis and a tie for each of us; I just found it weird she knew our sizes without having to ask.

"She was just determined. One day you'll be like Kate, right?" I asked with a wink.

"When we get married, it's gonna be bigger than this, but not too big," Bella replied as we watched Garrett lift Kate up in his arms and walk through the water as their friend snapped more pictures. "Neither of us have big families, so just a small affair would be nice. At least that's what I am thinking. What do you think?"

"I think it's great that you think about that…marrying me, that is." I smiled brightly as Bella grabbed my face in her hands and kissed me full on the lips.

"Well, I think about marrying you now. I used to think about marrying Joe Jonas."

"Really?"

"No, not really," Bella laughed as I let out a small sigh of relief. I wasn't sure I could compare to Joe Jonas, but that's because I had no idea who the fuck he was. "So…are you thinking of asking me to marry you?"

"Not today. Two of our friends stole my thunder," I answered as Bella grinned and Charlotte and Peter came over, both of them holding champagne for us. "I can't find it in me to be mad at them though."

When Garrett and Kate were done with their photos, we took a few with the six of us and then went into the house for a casual dinner that Kate had catered by Grocery, where we had dinner the night before. It was the extent of their reception; well dinner and then we had a fire on the beach.

Just like the summer before, the three guys curled up in chairs on the beach with our women and blankets across our laps. With beers in our hands and stars high in the sky, it felt like so much but nothing had really changed.

We reminisced over last summer and Kate and Garrett told us they were going to drive up to Niagara Falls for their honeymoon and to visit Garrett's grandmother who lived in Buffalo. It was very random, but it was also very Kate and Garrett.

"So…how did Charlie take the news of you guys shacking up?" Kate asked as she sipped on her Sam Adams while Garrett looked to be nuzzling on her neck.

"He reached for his gun…"

"He left the gun back in Forks," Bella quickly interrupted as Peter and Garrett laughed loudly at me. It wasn't funny at the time though because Bella failed to mention the lack of gun. I totally expected him to shoot off my junk.

"Neither of you would be laughing if it was you in my shoes," I challenged my friends as they continued to laugh. "You weren't stuck alone with him for ten minutes while the girls disappeared to the bathroom at breakfast."

"Charlie is harmless. He wouldn't harm a hair on your head," Bella said sweetly as I felt her fingers thread through my hair slowly.

"Speaking of hair…Charlie's 'stache is looking mighty awesome these days. Not many men can pull of a moustache like that and still look handsome," Charlotte replied with a wink in Bella's direction. My girl proceeded to cover her ears with her hands and ramble on loudly about artists and colors. Apparently she didn't want to hear whatever Charlotte was saying about her dad.

"I told you, if there is one thing that is off limits it would be taking about my dad like you want to date him," Bella shouted in frustration.

"He's a DILF, deal with it," Kate replied as Garrett nudged her and looked disappointed.

"What does that make me?" he questioned.

"A HILF? Husband I'd Like to Fuck."

"And that's our cue. Goodnight all, my wife and I are leaving you for the evening. Don't do anything we wouldn't do and stay out of the hot tub, we haven't had it cleaned yet after our visit a few weeks ago," Garrett yelled as he dashed up the stairs and onto the deck pulling Kate behind him as she giggled incessantly. "Just so you all know, there are ear plugs in all of your rooms. Kate figured you'd want them."

"Thank god," we all answered at the same time, which resulted in more drunken laughter.

"She also put condoms in the nightstands." I looked and Bella and we both nodded our heads and out of the corner of my eye I saw Peter and Char do the same thing. Within seconds Peter and Charlotte were gone from beach as I kept Bella close in my arms and we enjoyed the privacy for a bit before heading up to our room.

The next morning, as I lay in bed with my beautiful girlfriend asleep in my arms, I couldn't help but watch the sun rise in the east and think about how much I loved her and how far we had come. Life was perfect, if anything, I would say it was coming on easy.

**Story Rec's:**

**CPW just caught up with Inside Man by ooza and is forcing Risbee to read it, so you should all do the same. Risbee has been reading Stigmata Tomato by BellaFlan and will be arm wrestling CPW into reading it soon too.**

**Thanks for reading! **


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